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2. Building partnerships: Programme development
   Last updated: 29.06.02
Timeline: Programme development for partnerships work
1995: The Alliance and its linking organisation in the Philippines - Philippines HIV/AIDS NGO Support Programme (PHANSUP) – trained local NGOs in why and how to develop relationships with the media, government and business.

1996: In Canada, the Alliance facilitated a skills-building session on building partnerships for NGOs and people living with HIV/AIDS from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe at the XI International Conference on AIDS.

1996: The Alliance and PHANSUP facilitated a workshop in the Philippines to share lessons about the strengths and weaknesses of partnerships among local NGOs. The Alliance’s linking organisation in Sri Lanka - Alliance Lanka – also attended the workshop to contribute their experiences and to share the overall lessons learned in Sri Lanka.

1997: The Alliance and its linking organisation in Ecuador - COMUNIDEC - held a solidarity and sustainability workshop focussing on NGO collaboration, working with the church and gaining participatory inputs from other sectors, including field visits to local media outlets.

1997: In Sri Lanka, the Alliance provided technical support to its linking organisation Alliance Lanka, focussing on building skills for partnerships and documentation work.

1998: The Alliance facilitated a skills-building session on building partnerships at the National Conference of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Brazil.

1998: The first phase of the Alliance’s ‘partnerships capacity-building Pilot Programme’ was launched in Mexico in collaboration with the Alliance’s linking organisation, Colectivo Sol. The programme focused on the training of trainers, and included five capacity building workshops in three states, five workshops to share lessons learned, and an evaluation of the first phase of the Pilot Programme.

1998: The Alliance facilitated a skills-building session in Switzerland at the XII International Conference on HIV/AIDS. The session trained NGOs and people living with HIV/AIDS from Africa, Asia and Latin America using some of the tools that were later included in the toolkit.

1998: The field-testing of the toolkit was carried out in collaboration with Project Support Group and Pact in Zimbabwe, focussing particularly on testing the “user-friendly” nature of the toolkit for local NGO support programmes, and how it could be adapted to an African context.

1999: The Pilot Programme for capacity-building in external relations and sustainability was launched in Brazil with Pela Vidda/Rio de Janerio, Pela Vidda/Niteroi, Grupo de Incentivo a Vida/Sao Paulo and the municipal Government of Praia Grande/Sao Paulo. The project focused on the training of trainers and included four capacity building workshops in the states of Rio de Janerio and Sao Paulo, two workshops to validate the Brazilian training manual developed during the pilot and a final evaluation workshop.

1999: The French adaptation of the toolkit - “La Voie du Partenariat” – was field-tested in Morocco during a skills-building workshop in collaboration with Association Marocaine de Soldidarite et de Development (AMSED). The toolkit was used to improve linkage with public health sector clinics for the management of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

1999: The first skills-building session based on the completed “Pathways to Partnerships” toolkit was held at the Asia-Regional AIDS Conference in Malaysia involving participants from Alliance linking organisations and other NGO support programmes in the region.

1999: The Alliance launched the second phase of the partnerships capacity-building Pilot Programme in Mexico in collaboration with Colectivo Sol. This second phase focused on capacity building with existing partners in three states to address organisational development issues. In addition this included the expansion of the programme to a further two states.

1999: The Alliance facilitated a skills-building session for NGOs, government representatives, people living with HIV/AIDS and UN representatives from Africa, Asia and Latin America at the International Home Care Conference held in Paris.

Timeline: Policy development for partnerships work
1997: An article about the Alliance’s partnership building programme in the Philippines was published in “AIDS/STD Health Promotion Exchange Journal” in The Netherlands.

1997: An edition of the “Alliance News” focussing the Alliance’s experiences working on partnerships was disseminated to over 1000 donors, policy makers and NGOs worldwide.

1997: The Alliance disseminated a report synthesising the lessons learned to date about building partnerships to over 100 donors and policy makers.

1997: The Alliance gave an oral presentation on its partnerships work to date at the National Council for International Health Conference held in the United States.

1998: The Alliance developed a poster presentation on its partnerships capacity building programme for the XII International Conference on HIV/AIDS held in Switzerland.

1999: The Alliance toolkit “Pathways to Partnership” was disseminated in English to 1,146 NGO support programmes, training institutions, donors and policy makers world-wide. This was followed by 345 French versions translated as “La Voie du Partenariat”.

1999: The Portuguese adaptation of the toolkit was developed in Brazil. The Alliance also made presentations at both the World Bank/ National STD/AIDS Co-ordination Seminar on Sustainability and IX National Meeting of AIDS/NGOs in Brazil.

1999: The first phase of the partnerships capacity-building Pilot Programme was evaluated, and recommendations were disseminated both within the Alliance and with external audiences. In addition, a Spanish adaptation of the toolkit was developed.

How the programme has worked
For many of the organisations the Alliance has worked with, training in partnership building resulted in a considerable change of attitude. The Olongapo City AIDS Foundation Inc. in the Philippines is just one example: “We learned about treating other sectors, such as business, government and the media, as partners rather than enemies,” says Jude Asunción. “It was a real eye-opener.”

OCAFI had participated in the Alliance’s pilot programme on building partnerships, which was established in 1995 in collaboration with the Alliance linking organisation, Philippines HIV/AIDS NGO Support Programme - PHANSuP. This inaugural workshop was designed to respond to the increasing maturity of local NGOs and their need to sustain and expand their HIV/AIDS work. It focused on the use of participatory tools to build skills in reaching out to other sectors. A second workshop the following year enabled participants to share their lessons – both among themselves and also with participants from Alliance Lanka, the Alliance’s linking organisation in Sri Lanka.

In this way, the Alliance started its capacity building programme in partnerships work, which has since been adapted and expanded worldwide (see timeline). In practice, initiatives have varied from organisation to organisation and country to country. However, throughout the programme, the Alliance has consistently emphasised a number of core features:

  • Creative approaches based on concrete objectives. The Alliance advocates for an approach to partnerships that combines the most effective strategies with the most practical, concrete benefits for each individual NGO. For example, at a workshop in Morocco, participants were encouraged to diversify their partners, and to consider working with groups such as religious organisations and the corporate sector, as well as “traditional” partners such as the government. While in the Philippines, NGOs were supported to set specific, non-financial objectives for their partnerships, and to articulate the tangible benefits they aimed to achieve.


  • Adaptation rather than replication of participatory methodologies. The Alliance’s programme has focused on the use of participatory activities, and supported NGOs to learn from the methodologies of others as well as develop their own. In practice this has meant that, while some methodologies have been used in every country, others have been newly developed to meet country-specific needs (see box).


  • Complementary partnerships and programmes. The Alliance has encouraged NGOs to view the development of strategic partnerships as complementary to their own direct programme work, rather than in competition. This ensures that all elements of an NGO’s efforts, both conceptual and practical, aim towards the same goals. For example, in Ecuador, participants in a training workshop were encouraged to start by articulating their organisation’s goal, and then to draw an image to show how both their partnerships and direct programme work complement each other in reaching their goal (see box). The participants were then actively encouraged to review their plans for partnerships – to ensure that they achieved an appropriate balance with direct programme work, taking into account the existing commitments of staff and volunteers.


  • Learning from and reaching out to other organisations. The Alliance has actively sought to learn from and share its experiences with organisations beyond its own immediate “family.” For example, as well as its linking organisations, the Alliance has drawn on the experiences and materials of groups such as the Thailand Business Coalition on AIDS, Proyecto Acción en SIDA de Centro América and the Latin American Council of AIDS Service Organisations. Other opportunities included field-testing the “Pathways to Partnerships” toolkit in collaboration with two local NGO support programmes (Project Support Group and Pact) in Zimbabwe, as well as leading skills-building sessions at international AIDS conferences involving NGOs from around the world. The Alliance has also involved external organisations as “test sites” for the monitoring and evaluation strategy which has been designed to assess the effectiveness of the toolkit, and also provide recommendations for the improvement of future resources.


  • Reaching groups with diverse levels of needs, experience and capacity. While developing a core set of generic methodologies, the Alliance programme has also aimed to address the specific needs of a diverse range of NGOs, with differing expectations and skills. For example, while technical support in the Philippines involved a small-scale, nascent self-help group for people living with HIV/AIDS - in Zimbabwe it targeted large-scale, well- established AIDS Service Organisations. In each case, the Alliance emphasised the need to develop realistic, achievable strategies for partnerships – to fit the specific needs and capacity of the NGOs.


  • Building and sustaining local capacity. The emphasis for capacity building has been on local level. For example, in Mexico, the Alliance’s most ambitious partnership building effort to date has focused on a multi-year training programme. This includes the creation of a team of trainers from staff and volunteers from eight national NGOs. The team aims to ensure a local pool of people and resources to mobilise and support local NGOs to plan and implement partnerships. The first phase of this ‘partnerships capacity building’ Pilot Programme was launched in 1998, and based on this successful approach, this Mexican model has now been adapted to the needs of local NGOs in Brazil.


  • Combining capacity building with policy work. At the same time as developing its training package, the Alliance has implemented a parallel programme to actively promote the lessons and importance of its capacity-building effort to donors, policy-makers and other key players. For example, this has included one-on-one briefings, presentations at international conferences, and articles in international journals (see timeline).


  • Scaling-up the programme. Once the Alliance felt that it had reached a “critical mass” of experience and lessons in partnerships work, it proactively sought ways to scale-up its initiative. For example, one central strategy focused on developing a practical toolkit – “Pathways to Partnerships” - to consolidate the lessons from across the different regions, and to share the methodologies. The toolkit – which has been developed in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese - is a practical resource for NGO support programmes and training institutions. It consists of activities to introduce partnerships work and to guide users through developing plans, building effective relationships and sharing lessons. The toolkit has been disseminated through skills building workshops, resource centres, mailings, and conferences, and has enabled the Alliance to expand the impact of its programme – by promoting its work among many more stakeholders in many more countries.


Source: Building Partnerships
This is an extract from Building Partnerships: Sustaining and Expanding Community Action on HIV/AIDS, published by the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance in March 2000.

To view the whole report follow this link.

To download, complete with graphics, in pdf format (which requires Adobe Acrobat software to read it) follow this link (file size 453 Kbytes).