"The big challenges we face are existential — from climate to global health security. Progress depends on each party bringing what it does uniquely well: government creating the conditions, business innovating and scaling up outcomes, and philanthropy taking risks at the stage when others cannot yet do so. It is by combining these strengths that we advance the common good."
— Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of the Republic of Singapore and Patron, Philanthropy Asia Alliance
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s observation gets to the heart of effective partnership: collaboration is not an end in itself. Its value lies in combining distinct capabilities, so each partner contributes where it matters most.
Across the stories and partner reflections in Impact Highlights 2026, the strongest partnerships are not those with the most organisations involved, but those designed around the problem to be solved — with complementary roles, long-term relationships, the right support, and a clear path from promise to impact.
Here are five lessons on how they work in practice.
1. Assemble the right coalition
Partnerships work best when they are shaped around what the challenge requires.
Subhashini Chandran, Senior Vice President, Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth, observes that challenges such as small business growth and financial inclusion are too complex for any one organisation to tackle alone. The most powerful partnerships go beyond combining resources; they connect perspectives, capabilities, and networks, so innovation can scale and grow faster.
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman of Ayala Corporation, reflects on the importance of business working alongside government and civil society towards a shared purpose. He cites the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, which brought together more than 60 companies in recognition that some challenges cannot be tackled alone. Working alongside government and civil society, the private sector was able to contribute its strengths to a shared purpose — showing how trust, complementary capabilities, and sustained collaboration can achieve outcomes beyond the reach of any single organisation.
Wildlife conservation offers one example. Protecting the Raffles’ Banded Langur, found only in Singapore and southern Peninsular Malaysia, requires coordination across borders, institutions and areas of expertise.
Since 2016, Mandai Nature has convened the Raffles’ Banded Langur Working Group to advance population research, habitat restoration, public engagement and cross-border conservation. Research has identified more than 70 food plant species to inform habitat protection, while more than 1,200 volunteers have been trained through its citizen science programme to support field surveys.
2. Make each partner's role count
Different forms of capital and support matter at different points in the journey. Promising technologies can stall between proof of concept and commercial deployment when testbeds, partners, or financing are missing.
Ashvin Dayal, Chief Operating Officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, frames the energy transition this way: governments provide policy direction, businesses innovate and scale, investors supply patient capital, and philanthropy takes risks where markets cannot.
Equatic's journey shows this in practice. The carbon removal company received catalytic funding from Temasek Foundation after winning The Liveability Challenge in 2021. It then piloted its technology in Singapore with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, before C3H, Temasek Trust’s catalytic investment vehicle, led its US$11.6 million Series A round in 2025 to support the move from pilot to larger-scale deployment.
3. Invest in trust
Partnerships across borders, sectors, and institutions depend on trust and mutual understanding built over time.
Hari Menon, President of Global Growth & Opportunity at the Gates Foundation, highlights that building and sustaining trusted partnerships takes time and effort, but is one of the most important investments that can be made to create lasting impact.
Temasek Foundation's Asia Leaders Network reflects this long-term investment in trust. Through curated year-round platforms, it brings together leaders across Asia and beyond to exchange perspectives and build connections. Spanning diplomacy, security, media and business, its five platforms create space for dialogue on shared regional and global challenges.
4. Pair capital with capability-building
Capital can help an organisation grow, but funding alone does not necessarily strengthen the capabilities, systems or evidence needed to sustain that growth.
Reflecting on the Amplifier programme by the Centre for Impact Investing and Practices (CIIP) and the Philanthropy Asia Alliance, Satoshi Ishii of the Asian Development Bank notes that its focus on catalysing innovative solutions, building capacity and strengthening ecosystems complements ADB’s own solutions-driven, partnership-led approach.
This principle is also reflected in ABC Impact’s investment in DaMi & XiaoMi (DMXM), an early autism intervention provider in China. Alongside capital, ABC Impact provided technical assistance and co-funded an outcomes measurement study, helping DMXM strengthen its evidence base as it grew to 74 therapy centres across China.
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5. Bridge the gap between innovation and adoption
A breakthrough matters only if it can move from promise to practical use.
Regina E. Dugan, President & Chief Executive Officer of Wellcome Leap, highlights the need for collaboration across science, technology, healthcare, government, and philanthropy to move health innovations beyond the laboratory.
Associate Professor Chan Yoke Hwee, CEO of KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, similarly emphasises the role of healthcare providers, researchers, community partners, funders, and families in improving outcomes for women and children.
The Temasek Trust Collective takes a similar approach to pandemic preparedness. Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) contributes scientific expertise and implementation capabilities to various regional efforts, supported by catalytic funding from Temasek Foundation and Philanthropy Asia Alliance. These include the Asia-Pacific One Health Initiative (APOHI), which integrates human, animal and environmental health, and PathGen, an AI-powered platform designed to support earlier, better-informed responses to emerging disease threats.
Partnership as a practice
"When these strengths come together, partnership becomes a multiplier for opportunity."
— Ajay Banga, President, World Bank Group
Ajay Banga's words capture an important distinction. The multiplier does not come from partnership alone, but from how it is designed: around a clearly defined problem, complementary roles, relationships built over time, support beyond funding, and a credible route from innovation to adoption.
Seen this way, partnership is not simply collaboration. It is a practice that turns individual strengths into outcomes no single organisation could achieve alone.
Impact Highlights 2026: Partnerships for Impact explores how the Temasek Trust Collective and its partners are putting these ideas into practice.
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