Evaluating multisectoral partnerships

About multisectoral partnerships

A sector is a broad segment of society, such as health, education, housing or employment. A multisectoral partnership is when multiple sectors work together to address a complex challenge, such as:

• health equity
• climate change
• poverty and inequality
• sustainable development
• emergency preparedness

As society’s challenges become more complex, we need to work together across sectors to achieve our common goals.

Multisectoral partnerships can include government, private sector and community organizations. Governments can also have partnerships that feature collaboration between departments or between governments (such as federal, provincial, territorial,  municipal, and Indigenous rights-holders and partners).

Evaluation models

You can use various models to evaluate multisectoral partnerships, including the 4 summarized below.^{Footnote 1}

Social network analysis

This model uses maps and measures relationships and flows between people, groups, and organizations.^{Footnote 2} It visually shows how partners interact and share resources and information.

Benefits:

• identifies key players and their influence
• highlights gaps or weak connections between partners

Partnership self-evaluation

This approach allows partners to assess their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement, using tools^{Footnote 3} such as:

• Partnership Self-Assessment Tool (PSAT)^{Footnote 4}
• Victorian Health Partnerships Analysis Tool^{Footnote 5}

Benefits:

• encourages reflection and honest feedback
• builds mutual understanding and trust among partners

Longitudinal process evaluation

This model tracks partnership activities and outcomes over time and provides a detailed picture of how a collaboration evolves.^{Footnote 6} It uses various methods, such as surveys, interviews and real-time observations.

Benefits:

• identifies long-term trends and changes in partnerships and outcomes
• provides insight on the sustainability of partnership efforts

System-level analysis

This model focuses on results, such as the changes brought about in a community as a result of collaborative action.^{Footnote 7} It involves collecting data on changes to policies, practices and community outcomes.

Benefits:

• highlights broader impacts, such as policy changes and improved services
• identifies which strategies are most effective in improving outcomes

Health in All Policies Approach

The Health in All Policies approach considers the health implications of policies and decisions.^{Footnote 8} It brings sectors together to:

• seek synergies
• avoid harm
• improve health equity

Multisectoral partnerships can help sectors make progress on shared goals by:

• identifying and developing solutions for common policy issues
• fostering a culture of collaboration, and
• leveraging resources

Why evaluate multisectoral partnerships

Evaluations can improve collaboration by helping partners improve:

• Accountability: ensures all partners are contributing to shared goals
• Effectiveness: measures the success of partnerships in achieving its objectives
• Quality: identifies areas for improvement for partnerships
• Sustainability : assesses long-term sustainability and impact

In short, evaluation can help build trust and communication among partners, and support them in better understanding each others’ goals, areas of expertise, and challenges. No matter which method is used, evaluation helps improve multisectoral collaborations for equitable health and wellbeing outcomes.