Coordinating Activities Among Different Organizations

Within a country there are usually many organizations that are directly or indirectly involved in family planning. These can include:

• Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Social or Women's Affairs
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Planning
• Religions groups
• Projects supported by bilateral and multilateral donors
• Family planning associations
• Private physicians, midwives, and pharmacists

Some will be more active than others, and the degree of activity or involvement of most will undoubtedly change over time.

When many organizations are involved in providing services, you may want to sort out which organization is doing what, and whether any one organization is duplicating another's work, by developing a chart that shows the functional allocation of responsibilities. A functional allocation chart will help you to visualize the entire range of the family planning services that are available in your country or region and the specific roles of each organization involved in providing these services. This tool can be used to analyze and define clearly the responsibilities for the different components of family planning service delivery and policy making. It can reduce the duplication of services, identify deficiencies in existing service delivery, and make more effective use of limited resources.

Develop a functional allocation chart

Use the list on that follows to construct a functional allocation chart. You may wish to add functions or activities that are part of your program but have not been included here, or to omit any that are not relevant to the family planning program in your country. These activities should be listed on the vertical axis of your table (see the example below). Once you have established the list of family planning activities, make a second list of all the organizations involved in providing or supporting family planning services. List these across the top of your table. Next, identify which organizations are performing each function. Either check the column or write in comments. When the chart is completed, use it to identify gaps and duplication of efforts.

Activities for a Functional Allocation Chart

Improve coordination among organizations

1. Ask the most logical coordinator (Ministry of Health, national family planning council, if one exists, or primary donor) to call a meeting. Propose a draft agenda and suggest organizations that might send representatives to the meeting.
2. Allay fears and highlight the advantages of coordination.
3. Establish working procedures for the group, such as:
   • Membership (which could change)
   • Frequency of meetings
   • Sharing information through reports
4. Conduct a functional allocation exercise to see who is currently doing what and to identify gaps and redundancies. Define the key areas for coordination, and specify the desired changes and results.
5. Write up the discussions and the agreements reached. Set a date for the next meeting.