Partnership development and management continues to be of great significance in both the business (for profit) and non business (not for profit) sectors, while organizations at all levels have adopted different partnership approaches (formal/structured, informal/unstructured, loose etc) arrangements with varied experiences and measure of successes. Indeed partnership is deemed important for global well being, and to this extent is goal 8 of the millennium development goals. In Nigeria in the last one and a half decade, like in other part of the world, there has been a radical shift by donors from funding single organizations to providing funding support to consortium of organizations to design and manage projects in health including reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

Recognizing the importance of partnership development and management in developmental programming; and in enhancing greater prospects of successful intervention and widening scope of achievement, MSA in its commitment to the development of the health sector conducted a survey on partnership amongst health development organizations. This survey focused on the not for profit sector and donors, and has become MSA's contribution to body of knowledge within the sector. The survey, which sought to scientifically establish, document and disseminate the rationale, approaches, experiences and lessons in partnership development amongst various actors in health development constituency has the following key findings:

-      Partnership must be for a purpose, with guiding MoU, consideration of sustainability, setting clear goals and bearing in mind all partners competencies.

-         There must be trust and mutual respect between partners, team work is the best, which uses consensus building, involvement and commitment

-         Good communication and effective feedbacks enhance partnership, and regular meetings and information sharing helps build trust.

MSA is using all means to disseminate the Manual (in hardcopy), which is the refined output of the survey, including meetings, conferences, symposiums, etc.