To guide you in your selection of potential partners, keep the following in mind:

• If you want to build a broad social movement, numbers and geographical spread are important. You might give priority to organisations with large membership bases and strong grassroots networks of their own.
• You may want to identify partners who have expertise in awareness-raising, public communication and advocacy. Who will be able to help you disseminate evidence, present your findings and put out a compelling argument to convince decision-makers?
• You may want to identify partners who – because of their public status and / or contacts – may be able to influence key policy-makers that have the authority to adopt and / or implement some of the recommendations you are making.
• Remember that those most affected by the problem you are tackling have valuable first-hand knowledge and experience. They should be amongst those consulted and included in the work.

Source: Adapted from ActionAid International (2010) Using Evidence to Establish Accountability: A Sourcebook on democratic accountability for development practitioners and learning facilitators: p.83.