Secretariat collaboration model: Collaboration among international PVOs and local NGOs as a means to improve access to the underserved

The CGPP is a USAID-funded project in which “secretariats” of international PVOs (IPVOs) and their partner local NGOs coordinate community support for polio eradication. This presentation will discuss findings of the external review of the CGPP's first phase and subsequent Phase 2 project documentation to describe the secretariat collaboration model and its success in increasing access of underserved communities to immunization services. The secretariat model entails a small technical staff in-country independent of any IPVO, providing coordination and technical advice to a coalition of IPVOs and their partner NGOs and representing the IPVO/NGO voice in regional, national and international forums. The key results were 1) a network of IPVO and local NGO partners currently serving catchment areas representing not only 3,859,051 children under five but also those identified by local, national and international partners and stakeholders as those with the greatest social and/or geographic barriers to access in India, Angola and Ethiopia; 2) the “graduation” in both Bangladesh and Nepal of community activities from IPVOs to local NGOs and MOH; 3) representation on the Inter-agency Coordinating Committee, the coordinating body for polio eradication partners, by the secretariat, officially, permanently representing the community voice at the national level. The key factors found to contribute to success and replicability of the model were one clearly focused goal with widely accepted “best practice” strategies, the independence of in country staff from any one partner or stakeholder and a strong sense of ownership by the IPVOs and local NGOs.