Our model for building partnerships at the local level is based on Company-Community Partnerships for Health in Indonesia (CCPHI) and the centerpiece of its activities, the members-only Health and Business Roundtable in Indonesia (HBRI). We started both in 2008 after meeting individually with businesses, nonprofits, and public sector officials and giving presentations to groups of organizations about our work.
Following these consultations, we brought interested businesses and nonprofits together to develop a mechanism to help them build trust, as all had defined mistrust as a major obstacle to partnering with each other. We shared information about the Human Rights and Business Roundtable of the Fund for Peace that builds trust between extractive companies and nonprofits. Organizations in Indonesia used the guidelines for participation, structure, and procedures of that Roundtable as a model (see Building Trust), but asked that the content of the Health and Business Roundtable Indonesia focus on helping them learn how to partner.
The Roundtable meets four times a year and includes a presentation by a business and nonprofit of the dynamics of an existing health-related partnership, e.g., who initiates it, how and why, how the partners work together to implement it, partnership challenges, results, key success factors, and future plans. We encourage them to discuss the potential for sustainable results and how the partnership increases access to health-related resources, especially to women. Topics have included worker and community health, empowering at-risk communities, HIV/AIDS, improving nutrition, vision, maternal and child health, reproductive health, the environment, micro-finance development, and clean water and sanitation access (see Building Knowledge). Each discussion is followed by a networking lunch and discussion of a specific partnership issue (see Building Skills). Members host meetings and contribute other resources to support the Roundtable.
CCPHI coordinates the Roundtable. It helps members meet outside of the Roundtable as well. With CCPHI guidance and assistance members have formed three subgroups that meet regularly. Members decided how the groups would be structured and who could participate. Two are open to the public, the Forum on HIV and AIDS and the Family Planning/Reproductive Health (FP/RH) Group. A third, the Education and Business Forum, based on the Roundtable Guidelines, is open only to members.