Best Practices to Support Multi-Sectoral Collaboration

Altarum Institute initiated a research project to answer questions surrounding the complex interplay of genetics, economics, culture, social interactions and other factors that influence behaviors and outcomes at the community or population health level. Multi-sectoral partnerships are favored by many funders and public health researchers to create change at these levels. However, there are few formal guidelines about the essential elements of a establishing a successful partnership, from how to select an appropriate partnering organization to how to maintain the relationship after the goal is achieved. We wanted to understand the life cycle of partnerships from their inception and how to measure and evaluate the partnership itself. To gain insight to these questions, Altarum Institute conducted key informant interviews with several large coalitions composed of multi-sectoral partners. Using qualitative analysis tools, we distilled best practices, which can inform other efforts requiring collaboration of diverse partners to achieve an outcome at the community level.