The last three decades have witnessed an increasing volume of activity, number of organisations, and turnover of funds in development actions undertaken outside the traditional purview of governments. In this paper we are interested in these new kinds of development action from a particular angle. Our work may be seen as part of a "second generation" of analysis that examines how different development actors - NGOs, grassroots organisations (GROs), the government - work together. It is motivated by a recognition that scaling-up and sustainability of services on the one side, and the strengthening of democratic processes and deepening of democratic institutions on the other require different development actors to come together in a variety of ways. These joint activities that we call partnerships have not, however, been theorised adequately to date. This paper attempts a contribution in this direction by providing an analytical framework, an empirical mapping, and a case-study.