| dc.description.abstract | Over the years, multiple strategic alliances have become popular due to the benefits
and flexibility they provide to organizations. This study’s objectives were to
determine the challenges of implementing multiple strategic alliances between
Practical Action E A’s WASH programme and NGOs within the health sector; and to
establish how Practical Action East Africa copes with the challenges of multiple
strategic alliances within the WASH programme. A case study design was adopted
and both primary and secondary data collected, but more emphasis was given to
primary data. The Practical Action East Africa management team that was
interviewed included the water and sanitation team leader, the department’s area
coordinators, and the WASH project managers in Kisumu and Nairobi. The data
collected was utilized to undertake analysis on the challenges of implementing the
multiple strategic alliances between Practical Action East Africa and NGO’s namely:
KUAP, Umande Trust, Shelter forum and AMREF in the water and sanitation sector
in Kenya. From the research findings, it can be concluded that the main challenges of
implementing multiple strategic alliances between Practical Action East Africa’s
WASH programme and NGOs within the health sector related to mistrust among
partners, partners’ operational differences, lack of clarity of alliance goals and
objectives, people management and partner’s non performance; among others. It was
also identified that alliances experienced negative competition due to power struggles
emerging as the projects progressed. Clarity of partners’ roles before signing contracts
was cited as important, since it provided a framework to address challenges as they
arose. With regard to how the programme coped with the challenges, various
strategies had been put in place including clarity of roles at contract level, thorough
vetting at partner selection, open communication channels and flexibility to adjust to
environmental changes. The overall conclusion drawn out of this study was that most
of the challenges of implementing multiple strategic alliances in the WASH
programme originated not from technical aspects of the alliances but from people
related issues and therefore managers out to give more attention to the people factor,
which contributes highly to the success or failure of an alliance. | en |
