The UIP Company is a key stakeholder in the Management of the Technical Task Team at eThekwini Disaster Management and coordinates relief efforts and operations in conjunction with NGOs, non-profits and first responders to emergencies. As such, we are well positioned to comprehend that the complexity and magnitude of the social, economic and political challenges facing South Africa have reached unprecedented levels.

These challenges cannot be tackled alone and achieving even a modest degree of success requires considerable commitment, effort and funding along with concerted and collaborative action. In early 2020, the UIP Company embarked on an outreach programme with no fewer than thirty local NGOs and non-profits to focus on how best we could all work together to create real, significant social impact.

We appreciate that working with other NGOs and non-profits is a means to an end and not an end in itself. Clarity of focus is key and the UIP Company’s fundamental reasons for working with others are to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency, solve specific social problems with key partners and drive broader social or systems change.

Based on the 3C model commonly used in the for-profit sector we categorized the organizational efforts to work with others along a spectrum of increasing intensity, starting with cooperation, coordination and progressing through to collaboration. These distinct approaches serve different ends, and each approach is appropriate for a certain context. Being engaged in different partnership approaches with different partners in different contexts, certainly enhances our collective ability to achieve different goals.

The UIP Company knows its limitations and is mindful of its commitments. We understand our core competencies as well as those of the participating NGOs and non-profits and what they are able to bring to the table by way of value added services. Hence we are now better positioned to leverage those assets and have them complement our work with others. When NGOs and non-profits combine their resources, they can accomplish great things that can ultimately change circumstances for the better both locally and globally.