Partnership for Change (PfC) is a Norwegian NGO aiming to contribute to socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable local communities. We currently have operations in Ethiopia, Myanmar, South Sudan, the US and Norway. PfC is non-religious and politically neutral.

We aim to build awareness and empower individuals, especially focusing on women and youth, through education, leadership training, business development, and actively supporting local culture. Through investing in women and youth to become leaders in society and business, they have the opportunity to realise their potential to further economic, social, and environmental sustainability.

Collaborating closely with local and global partners to provide sustainable solutions, we aim to address the global challenges of the 21st century. We engage actively in our programs and our cross-sectorial networks to secure sustaining change.

We pride ourselves with a team of combined extensive strategic and operational experience from business, government and non-government, as well as culture and academia.

PfC was founded in 2012 to be a catalyst for cross-sector collaboration and social innovation. The aim is to turn good intentions into positive change. We bring together experience and skills of successful social entrepreneurs, NGOs, businesses, government aid organizations, and use their specific expertise to deliver robust, pioneering projects, which create long lasting change.

Each project we initiate should not only achieve its outcomes, but trigger further positive change, creating ripple effects reaching far beyond the original parameters. By working in this way we allow for public and private donations to go further, and wherever possible a return on investment will go directly into the local community.
Through awareness building, information sharing and action, we seek to challenge everyone to become active change makers within their available resources. We provide tools that empower all sectors to partner and collaborate in providing sustainable solutions economically, socially and environmentally.
PfC is actively engaged in programs promoting environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable communities. We believe the best way to achieve our vision of sustainable communities is to work together with partners locally and globally to share best practices and come up with innovative solutions to solve the world?s challenges and achieve sustainable development. Our four main strategies are to create arenas, develop partnerships, empower local communities, and share and spread our knowledge base and tools.

We have extensive experience and knowledge within women's economic empowerment and job creation especially in relation to venture philanthropy and impact investment. Our programs in Myanmar are based on using financial tools, such as soft loans, angel investments, entrepreneurial grants and patient capital to help build a sustainable civil society and business community. This has helped local entrepreneurs build sustainable business while solving social issues in their communities. Similarly, in Ethiopia PfC has begun work on establishing sustainable business catering to underprivileged women in collaboration with government officials, consultants, and local businesswomen. This project has the potential to show how financial investments can have an overall impact on women and girl?s lives (through job creation, improving health and hygiene) while being environmentally friendly. Our main focus is youth and women, working with a conscious climate and environment lens. In all our activities, we have very specific Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements.

In October 2015, PfC will host the Minnesota 2015 Summit (MN2015). PfC has worked on a process to develop practical solutions to provide a sustainable future for our planet. The process will conclude with a call to action as well as a platform for digital social innovation. The summit is strategically placed between the UN General Assembly with the new Sustainable Development Goals, and the Climate Conference in Paris in December. After the summit, the process will go on, both with specific projects and the digital social innovation platform that is being developed. During the process we have had extensive meetings and on-going discussions with potential partners all over the world, to find the best avenues and methods to develop tools that enable local communities to provide sustainable change at scale. We have finalized MoUs with Mayors for Peace, representing 1,6 billion people to enable scaling of solutions and knowledge. Several social entrepreneurs providing practical solutions for local communities have been included in our portfolio of collaborators. We have signed partnership agreements with a number of key universities, and have also built strong partnerships with an organization representing several hundred academic institutions representing leading sustainability focus, cross-religious groups actively working to save our climate and reduce religious extremism. We have joined forces with a global initiative to use a social progress index to provide a dashboard for local communities to monitor social change and foster cross-sector partnerships.
Partnership for Change started its work by organizing the PfC Conference Oslo bringing together business leaders, social entrepreneurs, community activists, and representatives from NGOs, government, and academia to inspire the creation of partnerships for a more sustainable development and to share ideas and expertise with an emerging and growing class of young socially responsible professionals. PfC has had much success with these conferences and has organized the Oslo Conference in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, reaching over 2,000 attendees.

In 2013, we began implementing projects in Myanmar further within education, employment, women?s economic empowerment, community development and environment. Our first project in Myanmar, the Inle Heritage House Vocational Training School has been completed and handed over to our local partner. Over 80 students have graduated and now hold jobs within the growing tourism industry. Also in Shan State, the Nyaung Shwe School was built for 700 students during 2014, and handed over to the local authorities. In 2013, PfC opened a community resource centre, Inle Speaks, where we hold our community and environment programs. In total, Inle Speaks impacted 50 people in 2013 and 720 in 2014. We set up a Knowledge Sharing Center in Yangon where we offer trainings in ESL, computer literacy, and business. Over 200 students have graduated from the summer ESL program. In Chin State, PfC organized ESL and health and hygiene workshops. In Yangon, the Former Political Prisoners (FPPs) Program has reached 200 FPPs through 2-day workshops covering ESL, social enterprise and community project development. This program had the following outcomes: new and/or more cohesive former political prisoner networks throughout Myanmar, as well as improved FPPs organizational capacity.

PfC is dedicated to women?s economic empowerment through entrepreneurship and job creation programs. In 2013, we conducted Project W in Yangon, 8 of these women have successfully begun their own businesses. Finally, in the Kachin State of Myanmar we have begun a major study analysing the forest conditions and the clouded leopard. PfC has educated and trained Myanmar field workers and junior researchers on the importance of co-existence of forest communities and large predators.

In South Sudan, PfC began work in 2013. We have partnered and supported the South Sudan Youth Association (SSYA) that reaches over 650 young people in Juba with sports through development projects. We formed a PfC football team of 16 young boys who received training during the year and were invited to the 2014 Norway Cup. Upon returning, these boys formed separate teams within their ethnic tribes. Since then, they have held their own football cup, with all 16 teams playing.

PfC is dedicated to building awareness of women's entrepreneurship and job creation. We have organized Women's Entrepreneurship Days (WED) in Norway, Ethiopia and Myanmar that have reached over 500 women. At each WED, women have made impactful connections and have been inspired to take their businesses to the next level.

Beyond MN 2015, we have plans to expand our programs in South Sudan, Myanmar and Ethiopia. In South Sudan, we will provide further support to SSYA as well as work on a sustainable forestry project with relevant stakeholders. In Myanmar, we will expand our programs in Yangon, Chin State, and Kachin State with a particular focus on young women's economic empowerment. In Ethiopia, we hope to begin a sanitary pad factory, start a girls' football program, and look into the prospect of establishing a reflect light factory that follows ESG and women's rights requirements. Lastly, in Norway, where we have our headquarters, we will launch Tøyen Unlimited, a community initiative to bring social enterprise and opportunities to an immigrant neighbourhood of Oslo.
YES - Annual_Report_2014_pfc1.pdf Ingrid Stange ? Founder & Chair, Partnership for Change, Norwegian
Chief Executive Officer ? Anne-Karin Nygård, Norwegian
Executive Director Norway ? Tonje Kulseng-Hanssen, Norwegian
Executive Director Myanmar ? Barbara Bauer, American
Executive Director South Sudan ? Arve Danielsen, Norwegian
Executive Director US ? Orlyn Kringstad, American Statutes_PfC1.pdf