Partnership maintenance

1. Partnership maintenance December_2009

2. Partnership maintenance $ $ $ $

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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 Negative review Institutionalizing Exit strategy Transition strategy

7. 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 Institutionalizing Partners will create new mechanisms or organizational structures through which the partnership initiative can operate smoothly

8. 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 See tool 7