PARTNERSHIPS, LINKAGES AND COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION.

Partnership involves sharing of risks, responsibilities, resources, rewards as well as exchange of

information for mutual benefit of and to achieve a common community health purpose. Partnerships may
be formal or formal but the major bonding factor is that the members of a partnership pursue a common
goal. Partnership can be at the Active, silent (quasi), Micro and Macro level viz. between two or more
parties.

Effective Partnerships are built when community members affected by common issues participate in
resolving common issues within their locality with support, facilitation or participation by other
stakeholders. Through Action Reflection Action, participants in community mobilizations begin to know
and appreciate each other and start to form ad hoc community structures through which they tackle issues
affecting them .Over time, the partnerships mature and formalize into Self-Help groups, Community
Based Organizations (CBOs), Societies, Clubs, SACCOs ,Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
Companies. Other partnership are bounded by partnerships deeds, Memorandum of understanding or
agreements,

Sustainable partnerships are issue based (challenge based). Partnerships without common issues or
challenges do not last long. When working with communities strive to identify common issues and
challenges affecting people and build a critical mass around them for action. Examples of a partnership is
when community groups come together to do a campaign against malaria or drug and substance abuse or
when communities come together to demand for a health facility in a given area.

A community health worker should direct efforts in building partnerships at the Community Level to;

1. Identification and recruiting partners to play a role in the community health service.
2. Identification of roles and responsibilities for various partners in the implementation of
Community Health services. A data base of partners, what they do and their contacts is very
crucial because for the purpose of reaching out to them when needed.
3. Maintaining partnerships and ensuring active partner participation, by engaging them in the
planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and feedback process
4. Contribute to a situation where the County and national levels government endeavor to build and
maintain public-private partnerships in delivery of services.

Advantages of Partnerships/Linkages

1. Synergy. There is power in numbers.

2. Tapping the talent and expertise of others.
3. Makes available resources needed for action.
4. The needs of all the stakeholders are taken care of.
5. Ownership.
6. Sustainability

7. Credibility
8. Peace and cohesion in the community due to regular interaction of the partners.

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How can one participate in a partnership?

1. Time -Attend meetings and make decisions to which actions to be done to tackle a health
challenge. One can participate in conducting a health research, health education etc
2. Resources-Financial, Material or human in terms of skills
3. Voting and vying for elective positions in order to elect good leaders who are able to tackle
community health challenges or to serve the community respectively.
4. Community mobilization –These include activities like issue campaigns, cleanups,
immunizations
5. Sharing of information.
6. Providing security and care for community Health projects.
7. Representing the partnership
8. Advocating or acting on behalf of the partnership

Organizing a good community mobilization

You can be able to conduct effective community mobilization by making use of the 10 steps of
community Organization.

A good mobilization involves the following steps which are both sequential and relational.

(a) Integration. Integration involves a process of building a mutual trust with the people you are
working with

The major purpose of this is for the people to know you while you them hence acceptance

Integration is done using, door knocking, staying with the people, attending community events

(b) Issue identification analysis and prioritization. An Issue is a problem that has the following
characteristics.
(a) Its winnable
(b) Has a target
(c) Acting on it leads to other issues
(d) Dramatic
(e) Affects many people

A community health worker and profession should be able to spot and identify the community issue
during the integration process and continue to do so while engaging the community.

Issues are identified through

Literature review, observation, interviews, small talks, caucuses, courtesy calls etc. among others. After
the issues are identified they should be ranked into the order of priority. At this stage a community health
worker is able to determine which issue he or she can start to tackle.

(c) Ground working and leg working before a mobilization is done to tackle the issue/challenge the
community health worker agitates people to act. This process is called ground working. Leg working
is the process of reminding people for the planned meeting.

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 (d) Meeting

This is a very important step where the participants converge to decide on the action to be done on the
issue. It is important for the community to begin by having a common vision. The following questions
should be reflected on.

1. Why are we here?

2. What do we want?
3. What do we do?

A meeting should come up with an action plan on an issue or challenge that clearly states what to be
done, why, when, by who, where and what is needed. Task Committees are formed to follow up on
specific tasks to ensure a successful mobilization.

(e) Role play. During this step the people conduct a simulation of the mobilization .They practice their
roles and are psychologically prepared for action. Scenario building is done at this stage. During this step
the following items as they relate to the mobilization are set/ finalized

 Time and end time. All the participants should know the exact time the mobilization
starts and ends. Mobilization should not take a very long time .Sometimes mobilizations
may be symbolic.
 Venue/Site-All the participants should be aware of the route of the mobilization
 Participants. A large number of tasks should not fall on one person. Many people should
take up roles in the planned mobilization
 Programme-The program.me should be clear on who does what and at what time. There
should be a master of programme to ensure smooth running of the activities.
 Logistics. It involves facilitation, transport, refreshments, public address, security, first
aid, entertainment and other details as they may arise.
The Community Health worker or professional should ensure the availability of:

Tools, materials and equipment relevant to the tasks (e.g. cleaning tools, cleaning
materials, trash bags)
PPE, manuals and references
Legislation, policies, procedures, protocols and local ordinances e.g those
relating to environmental protection
 Case studies/scenarios relating to environmental Protection

The role of a community Health worker and profession working as a change agent
should be able to provide Technical support and consensus building to the actors in
linkages and partnerships to ensure that the right action is done to resolve a health
challenge.

(e) Mobilization

It’s the real action (implementation) of tackling the issue. It involves confrontation of the target or doing
the actual work.

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Mobilization aims at victory which empowers the participants.

Tactics within the experience of the participants but beyond the experience of the adversary are used to
win.

There should be an monitoring and evaluation of the mobilization in order to gain learning and insights
which will lead to better future mobilizations.

Some concepts used in mobilization

(a) Mass mobilization

(b) Praxis
(c) Conflict confrontation
(d) Conscientization
(e) Active nonviolence
(f) Empowerment

Some principles

(a) People act on the basis of self interest

(b) Nobody has a monopoly of the truth
(c) Start where people are but do not leave them where you found them
(d) Make the people decide don’t just let them decide
(e) People act more on emotions than reason
(f) The poor have power in their numbers
(g) Start from simple issues to complex issues

Maintaining a network, partnership or linkage.

(a) Shared vision and mission. There should exist a shared vision, mission, clear purpose and
SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound ) objectives
(b) Regular information sharing among all the partners
(c) There should be a core committee comprising of specific people in key policy decision making to
represent organizations in the partnership, linkage or network. This makes it easy in making
decisions especially where resources are to be committed.
(d) Regular activities are the life line of any partnership, network or linkage
(e) Mechanism and guidelines guiding operations like MOUs, project documents
(f) Coordinating structure
(g) Commitment by all the partners or network member
(h) Resource mobilization.
(i) Strategic alliances
(j) Use of winning strategies and tactics
(k) Documentation of the programmes and activities
(l) Good Leadership practices
(m) Accountability by both members leaders

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(n) Participation by most of the members in the matters of the of the partnership/linkage.
(o) Continuous training and capacity building of leaders and members.
(p) Voluntary entry and exit. Members join and sustain their membership voluntary and willing and
exit freely.
(q) Internal and external monitoring and evaluation of the partnership/linkage

Further reading
1. Mulwa.F 2008-Demystifying participatory community development. Pauline Publications
Africa.Nairobi.