Partnership maintenance
December_2009
Partnership maintenance
Building a vision
(Needs, challenges,
resources, opportunities)
Can obstacles be
addressed?
Institutionalization:
building structures and
mechanisms to maintain
commitment and ensure
continuity
$
Identification and
dialogue among
potential partners
Mapping resources
(motivation, commitment)
(identifying cash and
non-cash resources)
Process:
1 - Exploration
2 - Building
3 - Maintenance
Preparing a plan
of activities with
roles and resources
Partnering agreement
Agreement on
core principles,
goals and objectives
Roles
Leadership
$
Review
the partnership
(process, outputs,
outcomes).
Corrective actions
$
Monitoring &
evaluation
of effectiveness and
impact - outputs and
outcomes
$
Mandates in
specific areas
Implementation
(once resources are in
place to work on
specific deliverables)
December_2009
Partnership
management
(core structure)
Partnership maintenance
•
The partners deal with:
−
implementing the agreed activities in the areas of advocacy and
service delivery.
−
monitoring and evaluation of outputs, outcomes and impact of
the partnership through the indicators outlined in the operational
plan.
−
reviewing the partnership and take any necessary corrective
action after the evaluation is carried out.
−
institutionalizing the partnership, if the review outcome is positive.
If negative, the partnership should go through the exit-strategy or
a transition strategy.
See tool 7
December_2009
Implementation
• Partners will implement the activity described in
the operational plan based on:
− Agreed products and activities
− Mapping of available resources
− Each one's roles and responsibilities
December_2009
Monitoring and evaluation
• M&E should be part of the overall joint planning exercise
• Partners will deal with:
− Monitoring: partners measure regularly the progress in the
achievement of the operational plan and provide information to the
health authorities and the secretariat of the partnership.
− Evaluation: partners regularly meet to assess systematically the
relevance, performance and success of the partnership.
• Internal evaluation may take place once a year and lead to the review of
implementation, operational plan and, if need be, the partnering
agreement.
• External evaluation may take place over a longer time-span and may
lead to the above and, if necessary, changes in the governance
structure.
December_2009
Reviewing
• After the evaluation of the partnership is carried out,
partners will take any corrective action needed:
−
−
−
−
−
Review operational plan
Review partnering agreement
Review governance
Review implementation
Review the way partners work together
Positive review
Institutionalizing
Negative review
Exit strategy
Transition strategy
December_2009
Institutionalizing
Partners will create new mechanisms or organizational structures
through which the partnership initiative can operate smoothly
• Less formal arrangements:
− Greater freedom to explore
radical ideas
− Cheaper – major resource
required is time not cash
− Flexible and not
bureaucratic
BUT
− May not be taken seriously
by external agencies
− Key players not available
because of other priorities
− Inefficient
• More formal arrangements:
− Increased authority and
capacity to influence
− Enhance ability to mobilize
and manage large scale
resources
BUT
− More able to transform
ideas into action
− Subject to legislative
restrictions
− Higher administrative costs
− Tendency to become over
bureaucratic and impersonal
December_2009
Exit strategy or transition strategy
•
Partners could be influenced on a moving on decision by the following issues:
−
−
−
−
−
•
Global/national context
Local context
Within the partnership project
Within the partnership
Within individual partner organizations
Partners should deal with the process being:
−
−
−
−
Inclusive
Transparent
Clear
Patient
•
Most important is having a plan and manage it well!
•
Results could be:
−
−
•
Closure of the partnership
A different type of partnership or another collaborative arrangement (this could happen more than
once in the life of a partnership!)
Good practices and lessons learned should be shared
December_2009
See tool 7