Building multi-stakeholder alliances that deliver
26 March 2026
From governance to communication, what it takes to make collaborations work.
Health and healthcare delivery are becoming increasingly complex – and this complexity requires the involvement of a range of actors. It also creates an opportunity for diverse partnerships and perspectives to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing our health systems.
If there’s one message those of us working in health have heard repeatedly, it’s that we can only address these challenges if organisations work together. Collaborations, partnerships, alliances, networks… their number has exploded and they have produced some incredible results – results that probably couldn’t have been achieved by any organisation acting alone.
Many alliances are forged in crisis or to address an urgent public health issue. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, for example, was set up in 2000 to increase access to immunisation in poor countries. It has helped vaccinate over 900 million children worldwide, saving an estimated 11 million lives. But alliances don’t only serve to address crises; they have tremendous value in uniting people with a common purpose, be it to drive better health or to achieve more efficient and effective healthcare.
Building momentum and unity
At HPP, we are firm believers in the power of partnership – it’s in our name, after all. And we have initiated and led several multi-stakeholder alliances (or, in HPP parlance, networks).
We know that people crave opportunities to share ideas and learn from each other, and alliances provide a way for them to do so. They also build momentum across a wide base of perspectives and expertise in a way that instils a sense of ownership and engagement to effect change.
For me, international networks are incredibly valuable, but they have to be managed well. This means that there is a clear process for prioritising and developing workstreams that are inclusive of and relevant to the members of the group and the patients they represent. The Lung Cancer Policy Network exemplifies these qualities.
We also know that such alliances are fragile, and work most effectively when all stakeholders have a genuine voice and an opportunity to provide input. They take hard work to build, sustain and keep relevant.
We thought it might be worth sharing some lessons we have learnt along the way.
Shared goals and clear objectives
Step one: define where gaps need to be filled and build on what already exists. Defining a clear scope from the outset is key. The idea of creating an alliance is intuitively attractive, but stakeholders invariably come with their own priorities. Without a clear sense of purpose and focus, what starts off as a vision for a cohesive group working seamlessly towards shared goals can rapidly become a group of people who come together for meetings without a clear sense of direction – or, as a colleague once called it, ‘yet another policy-talking shop’.
To address this, a necessary first step is to agree shared objectives and goals based on the highest-priority needs as defined by the group. These goals should be articulated into a clear strategy, with mutually agreed activities aligned to target outcomes, and feasible metrics that monitor how well these goals are achieved over time. Having such a strategy to go back to ensures the alliance keeps momentum and creates accountability for all involved.
A wide range of voices
Step two: find out who is already engaged in the topic and what their positions are – careful stakeholder mapping is a vital aspect of defining an alliance’s vision and remit. See what other alliances or joint initiatives exist; this will enable you to identify how your proposed alliance fits and where there might be overlap. And that, in turn, will help you sharpen the focus and scope of your efforts to ensure they are not duplicative, but instead build on, complement and provide real added value to those of others.
A foundation of trust
Step three: establish trust. A key foundation of any alliance is trust: trust between members – in that they feel that they are committed to advancing mutual goals – but also trust in the power and value of the alliance itself. This includes understanding the boundaries between any alliance and its members – who cannot give unlimited energies and may have core interests to protect. Establishing trust does not happen by magic, and it takes sustained effort to maintain.
Operational leadership to drive momentum forward
Step four: ensure operational leadership. This is important to the success of an alliance, and this is usually provided by the secretariat. This group acts as the coordinator, internal communicator and engine to maintain momentum and ensure timely delivery and execution of any agreed plans or activities.
Clear and transparent governance
Step five: set out your terms of reference. One of the biggest challenges facing all alliances is ensuring clear governance. Linked to this is the need for transparency about how decisions are made, who funds the alliance, expectations from individual members and the secretariat, and how funds are allocated. This information should be clearly laid out in terms of reference that establish a ‘code of conduct’ for members to abide by. A key issue is also ensuring that potential conflicts of interest are declared and the role of funders in decision-making is clarified.
Partnering with the Lung Cancer Policy Network has been critical for our APAC-focused lung cancer group ASPIRE, to ensure we are kept up to date with the latest developments globally and that we’re bringing best practice to our health systems. Our collaboration on events and papers has really helped develop regional thinking and shape our efforts to improve lung cancer care for patients.
Will Brown, EquiHealth & Vista Health
Communication, communication, communication
Step six: prioritise clear communication, internally and externally. As in any group of people working together, communication is vital to ensuring that members are offered opportunities to meaningfully contribute to ongoing activities and help shape the evolution of the alliance and its outputs.
External communications are also critical for an alliance to maintain visibility and impact, and reach its target audiences. Members must clarify to what extent they give the secretariat permission to be the spokesperson for the alliance, and what level of approval is needed when spontaneous requests arise for engagement in public debates or other communications. Success also relies on effectively supporting members to share and communicate with their own networks using a core set of materials to give the alliance exposure.
One of the greatest marks of success for an alliance is when it partners with other such initiatives, creating joint dialogues, events and communications. One such example from HPP is the Lung Cancer Policy Network – an alliance with a global remit, forging long-term partnerships with regional initiatives e.g. in the Asia-Pacific region. The Network has recently partnered with two organisations – the Asia Pacific Coalition against Lung Cancer (a clinical expert group) and ASPIRE for Lung Cancer – to facilitate bidirectional policy change and shared learning on lung cancer screening. The activities of each complement the other, with the Network providing a global arena for shared learning and consensus, and delivering global policy recommendations that are then actively shaped into contextually tailored actions. And vice versa – the experiences at these regional forums inform and deliver global balance.
Give alliances time
Step seven: take a longer-term view. Any proposal for a new alliance should ideally think of at least a 2- to 3-year lifespan, even if this is challenging with annual budget cycles of funding parties. The first year of any collaboration requires the establishment of solid foundations, a considerable undertaking in its own right. In the second and third year, internal dynamics become more efficient, ways of working and trust grow, and the profile of the alliance lowers the bar for further engagement of decision-makers and leaders.
The future is multi-sectoral
The health landscape is changing. As the roles of different actors evolve and new partnership approaches are tested, the importance of building impactful and strategic alliances through effective communication, transparency and clear governance remains paramount. The next era of health will belong to those who choose to partner with intent, clarity and ambition.