A timely resource for partnership builders
Public-private partnerships are easy to call for, but hard to build well.
The newly released TRANSFORM Playbook: How to Collaborate for Impact brings together lessons from more than a decade of work on public-private partnerships for impact. Developed by TRANSFORM, the impact accelerator led by Unilever, the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and EY, the playbook captures practical learning about how to build and manage partnerships that can support social innovation at scale.
The playbook is also a helpful addition to the wider literature on partnerships because it focuses specifically on how to partner with enterprises and entrepreneurs working on social and environmental goals. These enterprises can be engines of inclusive growth, bringing local knowledge, practical solutions and deep community connections. Yet many still lack the finance, capabilities and routes to scale they need to fulfil their potential. By focusing on how public-private partnerships can support them, the playbook helps shift the discussion from partnership as a general principle to partnership as a practical route to scaling locally grounded solutions.
Its release is timely for the Business Fights Poverty community. Last week, our Partnerships Series generated strong engagement from practitioners across business, civil society, donors and academia. A key theme was that partnerships are not only a way to do more together in good times. They are also a way to stay ambitious during periods of crisis and constraint, when resources are stretched, risks are rising and the need for impact is growing.
The conversations reinforced a clear message: partnerships remain central to achieving social impact, but many organisations are still looking for practical guidance on how to make them work in the real world.
Learning from a decade of collaboration
The playbook’s central message is that meeting today’s social and environmental challenges requires radical collaboration at speed and scale. No single organisation can tackle these issues alone. But when partners work across sectors and silos, they can drive social innovation in ways that help shift systems and create benefits beyond the organisations directly involved.
One of the playbook’s early insights is the importance of making the case for innovative, multi-stakeholder partnerships. This means equipping internal and external stakeholders with the data, evidence and business case they need to understand why collaboration matters, and why it is worth investing time and resources in doing it well.
The playbook then focuses on the foundations of strong partnerships. Collaboration is not rocket science, but it does take time, planning and attention. Partners need to identify the right teammates, define a shared vision, establish clear principles and agree how progress will be measured. These foundations matter because partnerships are a long game. Without them, even well-intentioned collaborations can become fragmented or transactional.
A strong theme running through the playbook is the role of impact entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are often closest to the problems that need solving, and many are developing practical solutions with the potential to improve lives, livelihoods and resilience. But they frequently need support to fulfil that potential. Thoughtful partnerships can help provide capital, expertise, networks, market access and confidence.
The playbook also brings to life what genuine corporate-enterprise partnership can look like in practice. It highlights how partnerships can help corporates achieve strategic goals while supporting enterprises to scale their impact. For example, Unilever launched Lifebuoy soap in Rwanda through TRANSFORM enterprise Kasha, while Ethiopian enterprise Kidame Mart distributed Unilever products to rural households, helping boost sanitation and hygiene while testing products in a rural market. In Indonesia, Alner piloted manual refill stations for Unilever products, showing how enterprises can help test innovations in a real corporate value chain. In India, Hindustan Unilever sourced recycled plastic through its local supply chain from Hasiru Dala Innovations, contributing to the Sunsilk brand’s recycled plastic packaging ambition. These examples are powerful because they show partnership not as philanthropy at the margins, but as a way to connect enterprise innovation with core business capabilities, markets and supply chains.
The playbook encourages organisations to be clear about which enterprises align with their partnership goals, and which are most likely to benefit from their support. It also highlights the importance of inclusive sourcing and selection. For global programmes, this includes activating local leadership and giving meaningful roles and responsibilities to in-country stakeholders. Shifting from global control towards local ownership can make partnerships more relevant, responsive and equitable.
Another important insight is the need for hands-on business support. Coaching, mentoring and access to partner expertise can be a springboard for enterprise growth when delivered in a spirit of true partnership. The playbook also explores how bringing impact enterprises into supply chains can be transformational. A major buyer can help an enterprise scale, while businesses can benefit from more inclusive and sustainable sourcing. But this requires work on both sides: helping enterprises become buyer-ready and helping buyers overcome internal barriers.
Finally, the playbook underlines that partnerships need active management. Contexts shift, enterprise needs evolve and partners learn as they go. Proactively managing a portfolio helps partnerships stay relevant and increase their impact over time. Sharing lessons is also essential. Storytelling, evidence and open learning can extend the value of a partnership far beyond its immediate participants.
Learning from what did not work
One of the most useful aspects of the TRANSFORM Playbook is its willingness to share learning from what did not go as planned. Not every enterprise engagement led to a commercial partnership or supply-chain opportunity, but those experiences still created value by clarifying what enterprises needed to become buyer-ready, and what corporate partners needed to change internally to work with impact entrepreneurs more effectively.
The playbook also shows the importance of being precise about language: concepts like “innovation” and “additionality” need to be spelt out clearly, because different partners may interpret them in different ways.
Another important lesson was the value of local leadership in selection. Local panels helped TRANSFORM look beyond the easiest-to-reach candidates, such as those with strong English or previous international funding experience. The playbook reports that 88% of enterprises selected by local panels had at least one local founder, compared with 53% of those selected by a global panel. This honesty matters, because partnerships that learn from what does not work, challenge their own assumptions and adapt their approach are more likely to stay relevant in a changing context.
Business Fights Poverty’s contribution
Business Fights Poverty was pleased to contribute to the playbook. Our CEO and Co-Founder, Zahid Torres-Rahman OBE, shared our lessons from more than two decades of convening cross-sector collaboration on business and social impact, including insights from our Institute’s report, Building Future-Fit Partnerships for Green and Inclusive Growth.
At Business Fights Poverty, we have seen again and again that effective partnerships are not simply about bringing the right logos into the same room. They are about creating the conditions for honest dialogue, shared learning and collective action.
From interest to action
The engagement in our recent Partnerships Series shows strong appetite across our community to explore how partnerships can help organisations stay ambitious during crisis and constraint, by sharing risk, combining strengths and turning limited resources into greater collective impact.
The TRANSFORM Playbook adds to this conversation by helping move from aspiration to action. It is relevant for established impact accelerators, organisations designing new partnership models, and anyone seeking to strengthen collaboration for social impact.
Public-private partnerships are not a silver bullet. But when designed and managed well, they can combine resources, capabilities and perspectives in ways that accelerate progress.
The question for all of us is not whether collaboration matters. It is how we collaborate better.
Editor’s Note: Read the TRANSFORM Playbook and save the date of July 15th to join the Business Fights Poverty Community Forum, where, alongside other pressing issues, we will continue the conversation on what it takes to build partnerships that deliver lasting impact.
