FINDING THE RIGHT RESOURCES 3

Coalitions have been described as a “necessary bureaucracy” and every coalition an NGO joins brings with it another set of communications, another email list and another set of conference calls and meetings.20 While collaborative problemsolving has been welcomed by many partners, it does stretch individual and collective resources.

Bridget Hannah, an Innovation Director at DGMT, points out that meaningful collaboration requires having a dedicated person who spends time understanding the problem to contribute effectively to solutions. A key issue with collaborative problemsolving in a new venture or advocacy campaign is that often one is not sure what type of expertise should be brought in at the onset.

Effective Coalitions

Coalitions bring together organisations that are on a similar mission or have similar values, with complementary resources, a clear ask, defined goals and a structured path to implementation. Perhaps the most imperative requirement is a sustainable driving force to keep the coalition on track and moving forward.

This is the learning experience of: