GMH Partnering

Virtue does not have to be so painful, if it is sensibly organised.

Charles Handy, Understanding Voluntary Organisations (1988, p. 9).

This section provides different sets of principles, examples, and resources for developing and maintaining affiliations such as partnerships. Working together as a diverse GMH community and domain is not always easy. Here are some guidelines from related sectors/initiatives. More updates/materials of course could be added!

1. Global Humanitarian Platform has developed: Principles of Partnership (2007). It includes five principles agreed to by UN and non-UN humanitarian organisations (equality, transparency, result-oriented approach, responsibility, complementarity)

2. Global Social Forum (GSO) has developed: Overview on Best Practices for Multistakeholder Engagement (January 2012). This document is a discussion an distillation of several principles from UN examples and partnership policies. It was developed by the GSO to help facilitate joint work on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), following the UN General Assembly Resolution on NCDs in September 2011 as well as many other efforts to prevent and control NCDs. See especially the Executive Summary and the concluding preliminary draft of principles.

3. Developing Member Care Affiliations (chapter 48 from Doing Member Care Well, 2002) includes a summary of 10 principles for relationships and management in affiliations. The principles and discussion were developed in a faith-based context and adjusted here for multi-sector settings (click here to see the two-page summary).

4. World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations. Code of Ethics and Conduct (2004).

5. Guide to Constructing Effective Partnerships. (Effective academic-humanitarian collaboration: A practical resource to support academic and humanitarian organisations working together; ELRHA, Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance, 2012). "Last year the Humanitarian Emergency Response Review (HERR) called for humanitarian action to be underpinned by evidence and highlighted the need for more systematic and rigorous applied research. However, in order to build this body of evidence and ensure that practitioners can access and apply it, humanitarians and academics need to work in partnership...." Read more at the ODI website.

6. From the NCD Alliance (20 March 2012 Newsletter): "WHO has issued three useful papers to inform this consultation [on NCD partnerships]: Discussion Paper 1 (here) examines effective approaches to partnership; proposes actions on seven key issues and asks for feedback on these proposals. Annex to Discussion Paper 1(here) provides background information on partnership approaches. Discussion Paper 2 (here) considers lessons learned from existing partnerships and asks for feedback on what priorities should be targeted by global partnerships and what role WHO should take."

7. The Science of Team Science. "The science of team science (SciTS) field encompasses both conceptual and methodological strategies aimed at understanding and enhancing the processes and outcomes of collaborative, team-based research. It is useful to distinguish between team science (TS) initiatives and the science of team science (SciTS) field. Team science initiatives are designed to promote collaborative, and often cross-disciplinary (which includes multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary) approaches to answering research questions about particular phenomena. The SciTS field, on the other hand, is concerned with understanding and managing circumstances that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness of collaborative science, and evaluating the outcomes of collaborative science. Its principal units of analysis are the research, training, and community-based translational initiatives implemented by both public and private sector organizations." Wikipedia, retrieved 12 August 2012