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Working Group & Cooperating Agency Relationships

Task:

Analyze CORE working group / CA relationships and provide specific guidance to CORE, CAs, and USAID on key principles critical to enhance productive relationships.

Examples of Relationships:

• Social and Behavioral Change Working Group – CHANGE - Eric Swedberg, Chair SBC WG and Anton Schneider (CHANGE)

• IMCI Working Group – BASICSPanel DiscussionSmall Group WorkBrief Report-Out - Alfonso Rosales (Co-chair IMCI WG and David McCarthy (BASICS)

• Leo Ryan, Director Child Survival Technical Support (CSTS) Program - Moderator

Why our Partnership is Much Like Dating: Eric Swedberg, Anton Schnieder

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To CORE:

Promote a list of "value added" benefits of CORE and its members to CAs. CORE should only select activities which have value-added benefit to PVOs. There should be clear expectations about what PVOs will contribute (including the time they spend), and the same for the CA. It is recommended to find a connection with the CA where we are speaking from the same page.

CORE WG should be clear and only select specific "value-added" activities, which are valuable to all CORE members.

(also PVO leadership): As CORE Working Groups take on larger mandates and more activities, find more support costs and/or CORE staff to support Working Group time and effort. PVO leadership are concerned about the time staff spend working on these relationships. It is recommended to find support for PVO participation in WGs, or finding more support for CORE for staff who can carry on the work of WGs more effectively. As a suggestion, invite Board of Director members to CORE meetings.

To CORE PVOs and USAID Missions:

Create greater CA/CORE(lette) collaboration at the country level.

Create a greater appreciation (via documentation) of the time and commitment needed to develop a CA/CORE relationship. The amount of effort required from both within the Working Group and CA to form a relationship and move it forward to a level such as that experienced by the SBC WG and CHANGE, is intense. Perhaps USAID does not yet appreciate the level of effort required. Seek ways to document this effort (for example, document the process used to discuss expectations) with a view toward increasing awareness of this issue on the part of all parties, so that there are not unrealistic expectations of how quickly products/results will be completed. Two suggestions are to hold a brown bag at USAID, or prepare a paper.

To CORE/CSTS:

Create a CA information resource book to state interests, skill sets, operations research possibilities, e.g. what the CA offers, and what they are looking for in partnership. In addition to technical information, include upcoming events/calendar. This could be expanded beyond a list of CAs to include outside agencies like CDC, NIH, etc.

To CORE and CAs:

Both the CA and the Working Group should better define CORE needs and what results should be obtained through the partnership. As an example, the CA should identify at least one result which was defined by the CORE Group, and show evidence that a CORE Group need has been met.

To USAID/USAID Missions:

Budget guidance/funding to support CA-PVO-CORE Working Group relationships. Go beyond a CA budget for liaison with PVOs, and add a PVO-controlled budget line item into the Child Survival and Health grants program to facilitate liaison.

Conduct a presentation to USAID Cognizant Technical Officers (CTOs) on facilitating CA-CORE relationships. This includes more coordination at the country level through USAID Missions. On the PVO side, where organization on the country level is also needed, this could take the form of CORE-lettes.

To CAs:

Identify a “liaison” to work with CORE. CORE should have the opportunity to participate in the identification and selection of the "liaison." Having a liaison/focal point with whom CORE PVOs can communicate directly has worked well at BASICS and EHP. To promote effective relationships, CORE should have some influence on the selection of this person.