Our Partner Feedback Commitments

Bring our follow-up actions as close as possible to partners via continued dialogue between our Country Teams and our partners, thereby ensuring our responses to partner feedback are contextualized.

This has been a strong area of progress. Partner feedback has typically been discussed in all-partner meetings, with action plans jointly developed with partners and reflected in 2026 country team workplans. Actions are tracked through team processes, all-partner review workshops, coordination meetings or partnership health checks. Agreed actions vary by country but include strengthening communication and partnership practices, improving monitoring and reporting, increasing organisational and technical strengthening support, promoting greater partner ownership and localisation, and simplifying operational processes. This means partner feedback is not being addressed only through a global response, but through ongoing dialogue that allows actions to be tailored to local realities and partner priorities.

Pursue outstanding commitments from the 2022 partner feedback exercise (e.g., strengthen feedback mechanisms, explore approaches to facilitate structured sharing of knowledge with our partners, etc.)

Outstanding 2022 actions included strengthening feedback mechanisms and exploring more structured ways of sharing knowledge with partners. A key step has been the recent introduction of the Inclusive Feedback & Response Policy, which strengthens our approach to receiving, responding to and learning from feedback from partners, programme participants and other stakeholders. The policy includes a commitment to support partners to develop their own feedback and response mechanisms, with a practical roll-out plan now being developed. We have also identified staff wellbeing resources that Country Teams can share with partners, with some teams having held or planning dedicated partner wellbeing sessions. On knowledge sharing, progress includes partner learning events, exposure visits, mentoring, coaching and multi-stakeholder platforms. We are also exploring how Communities of Practice and shared resource hubs can help partners connect more easily with peers, technical expertise and learning resources across countries and regions.

Further optimize specific (operational) processes and tools (introduce project financial guidelines, review reporting tools & process, review project development process, etc.)

Several improvements are progressing. A project inception workshop checklist is being finalised after testing with partners, helping teams and partners establish a stronger joint foundation for implementation, risk management and responsible use of donor resources. Solid work has also been done on project financial guidelines, expected to be completed in the second half of the year, to address issues raised by partners such as budget flexibility, procurement requirements and financial management expectations. A dedicated working group is reviewing reporting processes, templates and guidance in consultation with partners, including OPDs. The aim is to make reporting more efficient, inclusive and user-friendly while balancing partner usability with donor and organisational accountability requirements. Related improvements include simplified monitoring visit reporting formats, clearer monitoring Terms of Reference and greater use of Partner Action Plans to track agreed actions and responsibilities. Our ongoing project development and design review places stronger emphasis on consultation, community engagement, partner participation, learning from previous projects and co-creation with partners. A project design training package has been tested in two countries, with lessons informing wider roll-out.

To pursue our localization commitments (Our Partnership Approach | CBM Global) and continue to consult with partners as we do so.

Localisation is increasingly reflected in both day-to-day practice and longer-term organisational thinking. Country-level updates show partners becoming more actively involved in planning, decision-making and implementation. Country Teams are pursuing stronger participation from partners in country strategy development, programme design and implementation processes, while Country Advisory Panels provide structured partner input into strategic discussions. Our localisation action plan has helped embed partnership principles, promote grassroots funding mechanisms, support partner learning exchanges and strengthen feedback approaches that enable partners to speak openly. Attention continues to be given to OPD leadership: persons with disabilities and their representative organisations should help shape priorities, decisions and solutions, not only participate in programmes. Our longer-term shared power and local leadership work further reinforces this direction by emphasising meaningful consultation, shared ownership, co-creation and deliberate shifts in CBM Global’s role as an INGO.

While part of our wider agenda, these are a few examples of how our localisation journey translates to tangible and practical action: Our Kenya colleagues decided to step back from in-country Technical Working Groups (Cash, WASH, NTDs) to allow OPDs to hold a permanent seat in them; our Nigeria Team supported partners to lead the planning and hosting of National Disability Summits rather just attending; in Indonesia we are positioning partners to be consortium leads with CBM Global taking a secondary, technical support role; in several countries our teams have facilitated direct meetings for partners with national or regional government bodies and/or the embassies of one of our funding Member countries to discuss in-country funding opportunities.  

In the context of our localization agenda, intensify our focus on (mutual) organisational strengthening in our partnerships.

We committed to organisational strengthening as a mutual process, not a one-way transfer of capacity from CBM Global to partners. Country Teams continue to support partners to strengthen systems, governance, policies, financial management, safeguarding, disability inclusion, leadership, networks and access to funding. At the same time, partner feedback is also strengthening CBM Global. It has challenged us to simplify processes, strengthen partnership behaviours, improve reporting and project design approaches, and create more space for partner leadership and decision-making. As partners take on greater leadership roles, CBM Global must also adapt its systems, competencies, processes and organisational culture. This reciprocal exchange of knowledge and experience is helping both partners and CBM Global grow as organisations and is central to our localisation agenda.

By way of example, our Philippines Team has initiated a ‘CBM Global Philippines Partners’ Meet series, a regular monthly learning platform for the Country Team and our partners in the country to jointly learn, discuss and share ideas, best practices, challenges and innovations.