This case study was an institutional review of a sector-wide programme that had been running in South Africa for four years. Following discussion with the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the South African Local Government Association and the European Union, BPD analysed the institutional arrangements underpinning the programme, the factors and forces driving its evolution and the changing relationships between key actors. The review provided interesting insights into policy partnerships or national partnership platforms, as opposed to the more traditional BPD territory of implementation partnerships.
Following the review, in October 2006 BPD and the Water Information Network of South Africa (WIN-SA) came together to deliver a course on "Brokering Sector Collaboration". The 3-day residential course worked with change agents from the country's nine provinces, discussing how to take collaboration forward and working on skills that brokers can use to facilitate this.