CHASE Africa is a small organisation with a large footprint, reaching hundreds of thousands of people across East Africa.
This has only been possible through successful partnership. We support local partners to launch and grow their programmes. We provide financial support through grant funding, alongside technical support and advice.
We also provide additional, designated support for the organisational growth of all our partners to ensure their ongoing sustainability and growth. By bringing our local partners together, we have created a vibrant and strong network and forum for learning.
The CHASE Africa Partner Network enables partners to tackle common challenges together, share experiences and learning. It has become a powerful and valued forum for our partners.
Paula (from CHAT), Charity (from SORALO) and Rose (from CHAT) at the CHASE Africa Partner Conference 2023. The annual conference is an opportunity to network and learn from one another.
Principles of our partnerships:
Collaboration, relationships and mutual respect
CHASE Africa and our local partner organisations share overlapping goals, values and approaches.
Our partnerships recognise the mutual need and interconnectedness of each partnership and set out clear roles and responsibilities in order to ensure a smooth partnership. CHASE Africa and our partners believe that every individual has the right to health, and support key health principles of availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality. We also believe that universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health is a fundamental right and key to improving quality of life.
CHASE Africa sees partnerships as a continuous learning process.
CHASE Africa and our partners openly share relevant information and concerns. We commit to communicating openly and regularly to address challenges when they arise. Our partnerships involve taking risks together, supporting each other to overcome challenges and learning from our failures. Through our partnerships we seek to address sustainability by fostering engagement with civil society, government and private sector institutions. We also strive to fully involve community members as part of our sustainability strategy and our partnerships.
Participatory approach
Community integration is core to all elements of the projects that we support.
We believe that it is essential to gain support from community leaders at the start of any project. It is also important to consider all the different members of the community and to involve and engage with them all.
Although SRH and family planning has the biggest impact on women and girls, in many communities they are not able to make decisions without support from their husbands and other members of the community.
Leonard, a village leader in in Pakwach district, Uganda, encouraged the people in his village and his family (photographed) to attend an outreach clinic organised by RICE-West Nile.
Ministry of Health is an integral partner
Whilst some argue that it is the government’s role to provide adequate health and family planning services to all, in many countries this is currently not affordable or possible. In Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, the Ministry of Health (MoH) is very supportive of CHASE Africa’s work and is a key partner in our approach.
Our aim is to strengthen existing health systems, as we see this as a more sustainable approach. All of our local partners work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This means working with existing clinics and staff to enhance their outreach services to make them more accessible. We facilitate training to improve the quality of services that are delivered.
The Dandelion Africa team visit the Health Officer at the local Ministry of Health office
CHASE Africa Partner Network
Exchange visits and knowledge sharing
We foster opportunities for our partners to learn from each other. We facilitate exchange visits, set-up opportunities for discussion and sharing of ideas, and enable partners to collaborate together.
Webinars, training and consultancy
We host regular webinars on issues highlighted by our partners, for example sustainability, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation and safeguarding. We also support training opportunities for our partners, and we hire consultants to strengthen elements of our partners’ programmes, when they have identified a need.
Partner Conference
We bring together all our partners for an annual Partner Conference, where they are able to share experiences and challenges, both formally and informally. We bring in external experts to provide wider knowledge exchange and training; facilitate learning across partners, and bring in other organisations who are keen to learn about the work of CHASE Africa and its partners. These conferences have provide very valuable to partners.
‘It is incredible to be able to learn and observe the programmes and strategies of other organisations, as well as their approach to working with communities'
Delphin Mukira
Chief Programmes Officer, The MAA Trust