In point of fact, building trust and implementing partnership relationships has less to do with a USAID Mission and local clientele institutions. It really is about relationships between these institutions and project implementing partners. Ideally, local institutions and potential implementers would both be involved in the USAID Mission project design process, a process that actually existed several decades ago, but is not current. It was frequently known as the Collaborative Assistance Mode for Title XII projects and involved an initial competition among U.S. institutions interested in engaging in the design of an institutional capacity building project. Selection of the U.S. collaborator was based on various criteria including prior collaboration with the host institution and prior successful implementation of similar projects. Mutual familiarity and trust were thus considered as preconditions for engagement, and once designated, the local institution partners was involved with the U.S. partner institution(s) and the USAID Mission the project design process.

If full engagement of representatives of potential project partners in the USAID Mission design process is not possible, a second best option is to fully engage local partners and stakeholders in early project implementation, including needs assessment studies and subsequent definition of priorities and implementation procedures. This provides all major actors with an opportunity to collaborate with one another in shaping the project and defining the appropriate division of labor among them. This collaboration between partners also helps build mutual trust, resulting collaboration, and effective project implementation.