Mobilising collaborative action against COVID-19

New! Contact us now for free support for your COVID-19 partnership or for your partnership affected by COVID-19

Read TPI’s think piece on why all-of-society and multistakeholder partnership action are essential to tackle COVID-19 and to #BuildBack Better

Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the widest and fastest-spreading public health emergency for a century and has thrown our worlds into unknown territory. In countries where the virus has taken hold, health systems have been overwhelmed, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to die. Companies are going bankrupt, many immediately, some being kept on life support by government intervention with the resulting loss of millions of people’s livelihoods. The very fabric of our society is being torn apart, with our freedom of movement and social lives restricted in ways most countries have not seen outside of wartime. Assumptions about the very nature of the relationship of business, society and the eco-system, must all be re-examined.

The highly interconnected nature and complexity of our societies means that the required response to COVID-19 is way outside the purview and capacity of government on their own. An all-of-society approach is imperative: every sector of society – whether public, private or ‘people’ – must respond, adapt and bring their unique resources to the fight. Coordination of efforts and innovative collaborations within and across societal sectors are essential – at every level – to maximize collective value and make the most of the resources we have.

We are already seeing a number of partnerships developing, for example DFID and Unilever with a £100M collaboration around handwashing with soap, aiming to reach 1bn people. However, we need to very quickly scale up the number of partnerships and, importantly, we need those partnerships to be as effective as possible, even if they have had to move too quickly to go through typical ‘good practice’ partnering processes.

In response to the crisis, TPI’s global network of Associates and sister organisations, are coming together for a rapid response programme made up of three elements:

1. Support:
   1. Free helpdesk direct support for anyone who needs assistance in setting up a COVID-19 partnership or to those in an existing partnership that is struggling and having to adapt within the current reality of COVID-19; contact us at covid-19@tpiglobal.org or complete the form below.
   2. Creation of new fast-track partnering tools;
2. Research:
   1. A ‘rapid partnering’ research programme to develop effective practice on partnering under pressure that can be used, for example, around climate change;
3. Advocacy and thought leadership:
   1. Advocacy around the use of multi-stakeholder partnerships to tackle COVID-19 as well as an all-of-society approach to redesign a society that is more inclusive, resilient and sustainable #BuildBackBetter’
   2. Thought leadership through a series of blogs and think pieces (Framing think-piece by Darian Stibbe: Fighting side-by-side against COVID-19)

As these elements develop, further information will be made available here. Please sign up to the TPI Newsletter to stay up-to-date.

TPI COVID-19 Helpdesk

Email covid-19@tpiglobal.org directly, or complete the form below with information about your partnership, and the support you require (e.g. a partnership agreement template, questions over governance structures, online facilitation of a partnership meeting etc.). Please note, this service is to help you and the partners you have already found set up effective COVID-19 partnerships (or work through the challenges COVID-19 has caused to your existing partnership). This is not a matchmaking service – we can’t suggest specific partners for your needs – and we are not able either to fund or provide suggestions for funding.