Building partnership

Shared goals
While NTDs and WASH stakeholders may have very different objectives, they often have the same ultimate goals – improving people’s health and wellbeing and contributing to a more equal and happy society. There are also multiple potential shared aims between NTDs and WASH, like service uptake, improving efficiencies, increasing trust in public services, improving information for planning, and improving targeting of resources. For-profit service providers may have a slightly different approach, but their aims are generally aligned with efficiency and reach, by wanting cheaper distribution and new markets for their products. The very first step in effective collaboration is defining the shared goals and aims across partners.

Sector specific goals
Another attractive incentive for collaboration is its potential to help each sector achieve its own specific goals and objectives more quickly and effectively. For example, joint planning with NTD programmes can help WASH partners identify and reach communities with the least access to water and sanitation infrastructure. The WASH sector can embed hygiene promotion and sanitation uptake into NTD outreach programmes or help find resources for such activities through disease control programmes. On the other hand, collaboration with a programme delivering water and sanitation infrastructure can help increase public trust in NTD treatment programmes such as mass drug administration (MDA) and reduce the likelihood of re-infection among treated populations.

It doesn’t have to be difficult
And you don’t have to start with the most difficult part! Starting a collaboration process with the most difficult problems or trying to address all areas of collaboration from the start can lead to short-term failures – which can cause people to see collaboration as risky, and to revert to ‘business as usual’. Instead, collaboration can start where it is simplest, or easy to fund, and be expanded at a later stage as a joint workplan develops and as resources become available.
Simple entry points can include :

• Inviting other agencies and ministries to NTD meetings (and if relevant, to formally join task forces or working groups);
• Attending meetings and working groups of other sectors and agencies yourself;
• Sharing information on disease prevalence, on levels of access to water and sanitation, and on existing and planned programmes;
• Identifying potential sources of funding for comprehensive programme delivery;
• Seeking out and engaging with a specific counterpart or ally from the WASH sector with whom you could collaborate closely;
• Adding NTD-related behaviour messages into existing hygiene and sanitation campaigns (shoe wearing, reducing water contact, food hygiene); adding WASH messages into MDA campaigns and other NTD community mobilisation activities; or linking both WASH and NTD behaviour messages to other relevant programmes such as agriculture outreach, nutrition, education and veterinary public health.

Building a team
Collaboration is not just about setting up a coordination structure such as a committee or working group – it requires a team of people working towards the same goal. Try to build the right team by considering: what common, achievable goal can a team work together on? Who should be involved, what expertise and experience do they bring, and can they commit to being actively engaged over the necessary period?

First, get everyone together! There are multiple reasons to convene a meeting with other sectors and agencies, including:

• Discussing programmes where implementation challenges are common to everyone (due to conflict, geography, water scarcity, etc) and agreeing mutually-beneficial approaches);
• Identifying clear opportunities, where there is good overlap and a lot can be achieved quickly;
• Identifying areas where NTDs are endemic and there is a scarcity of WASH partners or implementation is difficult for other reasons.

Whatever the reason most relevant to you, these steps could help you get started

1. List who you would like to involve.
   Make sure all relevant institutions are represented so that they feel included in the process. Be clear about your reasons to engage each potential partner – for example, specific disease control objectives, aspects of the programme that need strengthening, or the need for allies in certain sectors to jointly mobilise resources or prioritise a specific geographic area. Once listed, understand each partner’s motivation to partner.
   For instance:
   • Integrating NTD-specific messaging or activities into established policies or programmes;
   • Fulfilling their own objectives for reaching remote or poor communities;
   • Accessing new partnerships and resources;
   • Accessing new markets and customers;
   • Delivering on corporate social responsibility objectives to increase visibility, credibility, and reputation of businesses.

    

   1. Organise a meeting with everyone you identified.
      This can be an informal or formal meeting to serve as a starting point for collaboration. Those invited should be the ones who help to shape the vision of their organisation, understand programme development, and have authority to make decisions on behalf of their organisation. The location can be according to what you’ve decided about formality as well as convenience for all attendees.
      The purpose of the meeting could be to:
      • Engage a broader group to access different human, technical and financial resources;
      • Bring together participants who already deliver, or could deliver, key components of the programme;
      • Enhance ownership by involving everyone at the beginning of the process.

    

   1. Write your invitation.
      You can use the messages for engagement to make the need for their involvement clear. Share the purpose of this meeting.
      For example:
      • Agreeing a shared vision;
      • Learning about partner strengths and potential contributions;
      • Establishing or strengthening working groups/ task teams;
      • Developing and committing to a preliminary scope of work;
      • Creating a core team responsible for gathering more information through a situation analysis and a formative assessment of behaviors and practices.

    

   1. Craft your agenda.
      This cross sector meeting agenda can help you to structure the meeting. Use the cross sector meeting agenda PowerPoint template to present information during the meeting.