twinning against AIDS Survey Response - 7

Selected comments:

We are a member of the Ghana HIV/AIDS network

We have partnerships in 14 countries

We have informal twinning relationships but nothing formal

We have had recent and informal contact with a European organisation

Twinning allowed us to learn a lot and exchange our experiences with others

Not USAID - but our implementers have a variety of types of twinning relationships with other organisations

Only through cultural exchange programmes

We worked with the training and research support group in Zimbabwe to develop www.auntiestella.org

We are presently looking for a twinning partner

We have been trying to go to other countries so that we could start to work together and it has not been easy to get people who were ready for us

We are working with a US based organisation on a project that will create new skills and new opportunities for locally relevant application and development both nationally and regionally. We are also planning training activities that will be jump-started through twinning but eventually will become an important source of income generation for long-term sustainability and maintaining autonomy

Selected comments:

A mutual funder initiated our twinning partnership

These relationships are mainly initiated by our organisation

We have tried to initiate contact in the past but without response

Our organisation initiated the twinning but have now been approached by another organisation

While we were initially approached we also have in turn approached others who have become part of our international network

What led initiating respondents to do so – selected comments

We had no previous experience in the field and needed assistance

Our needs assessment told us we need outside assistance

We needed information and ideas from other organisations

The need to share and join efforts to best use the resources

The desire to put their material online to make it more accessible

To increase the scope of the program and the amount of resources devoted to the activity. also to combine differing areas of expertise

Twinning funding was available and we had been interested in twinning for a long time

We are mandated by Ministers of Health in the Horn of Africa to control communicable diseases at cross-border level.

Twinning was a natural progression from peer exchanges where communities felt the need to tell others about their programmes and in turn helped them establish their own

Recognition of the magnitude of the threat - and a glimpse of opportunities - as well as the knowledge that we have useful skills and experience

Methods for choosing twinning partners - selected comments

It was based on our area of focus

We invited private sector companies to a meeting and then had follow-on visits

We did not have options of choosing a partner. we only responded to an advertisement

Through existing relationships

By the quality of the partners material

We built on previous cooperation on the ground in other activities

Lawrence Weiser the web master of gayreading had read my reports on the 5th ICAAP on SEA-AIDS and contacted me to write for gayreading. The exchange led him to teach me web designing through e-mails and immediately after that I presume he died

We looked for key people within key national institutions in heavily affected countries with whom we had a solid personal relationship who were in a position to convene the formative deliberations

Developed a list of criteria of what we wanted to learn/gain from a partner

We sought organisations with prior experience in collaboration and management ability

At an HIV meeting in Brazil

A mutual acquaintance approached us

One of the members of our organisation had a parent who visited Canada and gave a presentation on the situation in Uganda and need to form a partnership with CDN CBO

Objectives of twinning partnerships selected comments:

Strengthening capacity

Exchanging experiences

Building cultural competence

Materials development and distribution

Training

Exchanging local knowledge

Mobilising more resources

To duplicate our work in another region

Gaining new perspectives on management and programmes

Combining respective areas of expertise in information and service delivery to effectively implement a project

Exchanging education tools

Sharing technological capabilities to enable the production and delivery of vital information to the widest possible audience

Adapting workshops to local cultural reality

To be inspired by each other

We wanted to develop a more multi-cultural approach to our work

We have ambitions plans for setting up an appropriate information system to serve the community. we are looking for ways to overcome the lack of a telephone network

Providing opportunities for members of both organisations to become more involved in the work of the sister organisation

We wanted to improve our programme impact

We find it somewhat easier to get funding with 2 or more NGOs involved in projects

We wanted resources translated

To strengthen our capacity to do advocacy work

Selected comments on meeting objectives:

Too early to tell

We did not assess the results

Our twinning is very informal

We had difficulties due to finding limitations and lack of technical support

We believe we have documents of great value

Feed back from beneficiary NGOs was positive

Selected comments on the most important benefits:

Skill development

We have a good adolescent reproductive health website

We have better care and prevention programmes

A network has been established

Our organisation has been sensitised to the HIV/AIDS crisis

We reached a wide spread audience

We demonstrated our ability to participate in a major programme

We heightened the commitment of both organisations

We developed a national model for school-based interventions

We formed a new national network in Belarus

People in a number of institutions thinking in a different way about the relevance of what they are doing to HIV/AIDS - and vice versa. developing plans

Acknowledgement that we're on the right track

Broader awareness and interest in global HIV/AIDS work

We gained the opportunity to have a direct impact on the outcome of a project

Being able to see common themes across countries and to promote those in the US and international forums

We have developed friendships and a sense of mentoring

Selected comments on the greatest obstacles or drawbacks:

Lack of funds for travel

Unrealistic expectations and resource allocation from funders re: what it takes for a strong partnership

Poor Information and Technology facility and technocrats

A project we didn't select was badly prepared

Lack of computers

Lack of time

Lack of trust

No respect of mutual promises

Dependency of the weakest partner

Some institutions withhold to their findings not sharing information

No respect of mutual promises

Non commitment of some members

Sustaining partnerships in the face of financial and logistical difficulties

Lack of transport and facilities to reach rural communities

Power outages and weak infrastructure

Lack of clear definition of common agenda

Different interests between partners

Communication between partners--can't communicate often enough