The study “The Power of Partnership Approaches” analyses MPF’s portfolio of 48 partnership projects funded between 2016 and 2023 to propose a classification of five types of migration partnerships. The study describes main characteristics, strengths and opportunities, weaknesses, or challenges, and provides examples of activities under each category.
The five types of partnerships described below have been extracted after a mapping exercise of 48 “partnership projects” funded by the EU under MPF between 2016 and 2023. Since 2016, these projects have enabled trust-building and cooperation between EU MS and partner countries, promoting a shared understanding of complex migration challenges that necessitate a coordinated and multi-stakeholder approach to achieve shared priorities and objectives for migration management.
Background
After several years of pilot projects and having compiled a series of lessons learned, the MPF team wanted to analyse the role of the actors involved in each partnership project; how they interact with one another and what outcomes this collaboration might lead to.
For Sharmarke Ahmed, author of the study, this study is “An essential step to explore when trying to formulate any future project. When stakeholders think of their projects, they might focus on project objectives and outcomes, but by incorporating some thinking about what type of partnerships they wish to see flourishing, they might be more successful in establishing sustainable structures that outlive project formats.”
Five types of partnerships
The partnership mapping exercise revealed several key findings regarding the typology of partnership approaches linked to migration management and cooperation. The analysis presented below draws from both the mapping exercise and the insights gleaned during the MPF partnership event held on 28 September 2023.
Accounting for an estimated 21% of the portfolio, Operational Partnerships exist to address operational constraints and may take the form of collaboration in areas such as border management, law enforcement, and challenges such as migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and irregular migration. The objective is to deliver rapid and concrete results under time pressure and hence their suitability comes into plan when addressing immediate operational needs and pressing issues, especially during crises, fostering effective and timely collaboration among migration management actors.
Within the MPF portfolio, one prime example of this type of partnership would be the ‘Enhancing capacities of Border Police forces to detect forged identity and travel documents for preventing and combatting irregular migration and trafficking in human beings’ project, implemented between June 2021 and March 2024 by the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, in collaboration with the Border Police of the Republic of Moldova.
Policy and Dialogue Partnerships primarily focus on engendering dialogue, coordination, and knowledge exchange, ensuring coherent and effective collaboration by aligning and harmonising migration policies and practices. Crucially, these types of partnerships lay the foundation for long-term, sustained cooperation on migration issues. At the time of the review, they only represented 2% of projects within MPF, but other established ICMPD-led Regional Dialogues such as the Rabat Process testify to the successful format of policy and dialogue partnerships in migration management and governance.
To this end, the MPF supports two of the four Regional Dialogues - the Prague Process and the Budapest Process - to harness the utility of policy and dialogue partnerships towards achieving shared migration management objectives between EU MS and priority partner countries.
Capacity Partnerships represented 33% of the MPF portfolio mapped. They are designed to bolster the institutional capacity of relevant migration actors, including government agencies and various entities involved in migration management. These partnerships seek sustainable results by augmenting and supplementing migration actors’ technical, administrative, and human resource capacities. Capacity Partnerships become essential for addressing long-term capacity gaps, leveraging the knowledge and resources of actors with greater capacity to support and transfer their expertise to counterparts. Given their investment in institutional development, they normally necessitate a larger budget than others for implementation of activities.
Within the MPF portfolio, a prime example of this type of partnership would be the ‘Strengthening Migrant Integration through Cooperation between Portugal and Cabo Verde –Coop4 Int’ project, implemented by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) of Portugal and the High Authority for Immigration of Cabo Verde (AAI), which runs from December 2021 to December 2024.
Action Research Partnerships focus on building knowledge and evidence through data collection, research and studies, with the ultimate objective of informing evidence-based policies and practices in the field of migration. They seek to bridge evidence-based research and policy development, influencing migration-related policies and practices through policy-relevant research findings.
Within the MPF portfolio, a prime example of this type of partnership would be the recently concluded ‘Children Left Behind by Labour Migration: Supporting Moldovan and Ukrainian Transnational Families in the EU (CASTLE) project, implemented by Babeș-Bolyai University, in collaboration with Terre des Hommes Elveția, Terre des Hommes Moldova, Terre des Hommes Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Oleksandr Yaremenko and the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova).
Hybrid Partnerships represent 38% of the portfolio, combining elements and objectives and exhibiting characteristics of two or more partnerships. Under this type, flexibility is a key asset at the service of actors who wish to tailor their approach when navigating complex migration challenges. Most skills and labour mobility partnerships fell under this category, underlining the complex nature of these types of projects.
Noteworthy examples include the ‘WAFIRA -Women as Financially Independent Rural Actors, Digital Explores I and II, and the Reinforcement of the Migration Management System in the Republic of Armenia –ReMMAr projects, among others.
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