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This checklist tool is designed for civil society organisations to review the ‘health’ of a partnership and determine areas for discussion and improvement.
This resource is for use in the implementation phase of partnerships. The tool is part of our How to Strengthen Collaboration toolkit for civil society organisations. PDF and Word versions of this individual resource are available for download at the bottom of the page.
How to use this resource
Monitoring the health and efficiency of the partnership’s setup, operation and processes is essential to ensure maximum partnership impact. This tool sets out a set of indicators of partnership “good health” that should be discussed and agreed early on in the partnership lifecycle.
The framework can be used informally and regularly – for example every two months – as a prompt for discussion in partner meetings to help keep the partnership on track.
Review workshop
Below is the description for a more formal partnership health check review workshop that could be held every six months to a year. This guidance should be used together with the downloadable resource at the bottom of the page.
Where there are many partners, or where there are significant issues raised, an external facilitator might be appropriate.
Ask all partners to complete the checklist below, providing their opinion on where the partnership sits relative to each aspect of good practice in partnering:
Analyse the results to prioritise the areas for discussion at the workshop.
Agree ‘ground rules’ to encourage openness and participation, making it clear that the review is not about judgment or blame, but a positive opportunity to bring up issues, learn together and improve the partnership.
Present the checklist analysis. Jointly talk through each partnering aspect and the positive experiences or the challenges partners may have around it.
Aim to fully understand and appreciate your cross-organisational perspectives or other sources of diversity.
Talk through how each aspect of partnering could be either further enhanced or meaningfully improved to the satisfaction of all partners and prioritise.
Determine what actions should be undertaken, by whom (wherever possible by more than one partner) and by when.
Undertake the agreed actions, conferring with partners, keeping all informed on progress;
Confirm with partners that the aspects have improved.
Download the partnership health check tool
This checklist is available for download in English:
This resource was developed by GNDR and The Partnering Initiative as part of the Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development project.