All Health Partnerships, Great and Small: Comparing Mandated With Emergent Health Partnerships; Comment on “Evaluating Global Health Partnerships: A Case Study of a Gavi HPV Vaccine Application Process in Uganda”

The plurality of healthcare providers and funders in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has given rise to an era in which health partnerships are becoming the norm in international development. Whether mandated or emergent, three common drivers are essential for ensuring successful health partnerships: trust; a diverse and inclusive network; and a clear governance structure. Mandated and emergent health partnerships operate as very different models and at different scales. However, there is potential for sharing and learning between these types of partnerships. Emergent health partnerships, especially as they scale up, may learn from mandated partnerships about establishing clear governance mandates for larger and more complex partnerships. By combining social network analysis, which can detect key actors and stakeholders that could add value to existing emergent partnerships, with Brinkerhoff’s comprehensive framework for partnership evaluation, we can identify a set of tools that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of emergent health partnerships.