Effective Health Collaboration
How Donors in Your Region Can Put the Paris Declaration into Action
Thousands of global health projects have been created, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Unfortunately due to a serious lack of coordination and accountability, the results seldom live up to the good intentions and beyond the life of these projects. The sad truth is, despite a huge influx of funds and lots of hard work, most projects deliver outputs that show they have helped a number of people in the country where they worked, but they did not actually improve the country’s health system.
The good new is if you’re a project manager or backstop a number of projects or you work for one of the donors in a region, there is something you can do to drastically improve the quality of healthcare in the part of the world where you have an influence. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness gives you the perfect framework for effective results, increased sustainability and donor coordination. In 2005, 125 countries and over 50 donors and international organizations signed this declaration and approved the following five powerful principles: Ownership, Harmonization, Alignment, Results and Mutual Accountability. (If you don’t have a copy, click here to download your copy of the Paris Declaration.)
Your goal should be to align your work with every country’s health system structures and collaborate with all the organizations and donors in your region or province to implement the principles of the Paris Declaration. How can you accomplish this when every organization is currently focused on their own particular health care agenda?
To get this collaboration and increased collective effectiveness started, take the leadership and help the Ministry of Health to invite all donors to come to a meeting to create a Development Partnership in your province or even countrywide. It’s important to ensure there is representation of every sector or stakeholder in the geographic area you work, including groups of civil society that represent the patients and communities. In this way, everyone has a voice and responsibility to help improve the health system.
Prior to the meeting make sure everyone has a copy of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness so the group can decide how to collaborate in putting the Declaration to work. The beauty of the Paris Declaration is that it’s a principle-focused document. It does not tell you what to do because each country and donors and partners are different, but it guides everything you and your partners choose to do.
This meeting should take about two hours with the focus on an implementation agenda for the whole year and milestones for the following quarter. This is preferable to a plan, because agenda implies you are scheduling concrete next steps. Sometimes plans stay as vague statements of intention and are not fully implemented. This meeting is about effecting real, sustainable change to the health care system in your area.
After discussing what the Declaration means to each attendee, have each person commit to at least one action in the next quarter, with a maximum of three actions. Three commitments is a good number and prevents over-promising. In my experience, most people can easily remember and follow through with three commitments. Of course, more can be achieved after those three are fulfilled. Have your meeting participants work in small groups to review the list of commitments to ensure they meet the five principles of the Declaration and make adjustments. The next step is to have these commitments typed up and have everyone sign the agenda to signify their commitment and take a copy with them.
Make sure to decide at this first meeting on a schedule to meet every quarter to account for progress. Mutual accountability must be practiced quarterly. Coordination meetings are best conducted quarterly so partners can have enough time to follow through on their commitments and easily measure and “see” progress. The principles of the Declaration put the Ministry of Health in the leadership seat, so contribute and help lead the meeting and demonstrate your own accountability by meeting your commitments every quarter consistently. In this way, you help the authorities of the Ministry of Health to hold everyone accountable for their commitments at the next meeting, starting with your own commitments. Set the example. That is my definition of coordination, setting goals, and setting the example!
In global health, you will want to have everyone focus on the main health priorities of your province or country, i.e. reducing maternal, infant and child mortality, reducing HIV transmission, increasing malaria prevention, and TB treatment, and improving the quality efficiency and consistency of the services provided by the facilities in the region you work in. With this focus and the Paris Declarations principles in action, you will be able to coordinate the efforts of all partners in your province and see tangible impact every quarter.
At, RGH our focus is on providing you with the right coordination tools that make the best use of all resources available. We assist with strategic planning on various programs to ensure they are overcoming challenges and addressing new opportunities. Learn more about our donor solutions or contact us to learn more.
