Introduction
As a public benefit collaborative intermediary organisation, the Economic Development Partnership (EDP) supports diverse stakeholders in harnessing each other’s energy, knowledge and resources for collective action. We design and facilitate collaboration that improves interventions addressing society’s most pressing development challenges.
The practise of partnering at the EDP combines theoretical and systems knowledge with user-friendly tools, grounded in practical experience. This approach helps stakeholders enhance the capabilities necessary to navigate issues that involve multiple groups with diverging interests in polarised and uncertain environments. Our experience of working in diverse public sector environments makes the EDP effective at strengthening the relationships between state and non-state actors and building state capacity.
The EDP’s approach to partnering means that we:
- Diagnose systemic issues using systems thinking and collective identification and analysis of challenges
- Create inclusive stakeholder engagement activities
- Design partnering processes that are built using frameworks tailored to specific contexts
- Enrich collaborative capabilities within partners for sustainable impact
- Convene platforms that balance varied interests in contested, low-trust spaces using dialogues, learning networks, and communities of practice
- Facilitate action-oriented learning and experimentation to enhance capacity for adaptive and collaborative leadership
Governance and Funding
The EDP is set up as an independent not-for-profit company (NPC) governed by the Companies Act 71 of 2008 and a board of directors. We are also a registered Public Benefit Organisation. Our funding comes from international donor agencies, South African national government, the Western Cape provincial government, local municipalities, including the City of Cape Town.