One of the anticipated outcomes of facilitating and supporting south-south collaboration is building relationships and networks of organizations interested in your business area or sector.  Building a cadre of local and regional organizations to call on can lead to:

• Efficiencies and economies of scale
• Increased cooperation and synergies at the regional level, and
• Increased knowledge exchange at the community and project level.

There are numerous guides for facilitating south-south collaboration.  Last year, my colleague Mary Gutmann and I developed a framework and toolkit for AIDSTAR-One, USAID's global project to combat HIV/AIDS through technical assistance and knowledge management. This framework, called South-to-South Technical Exchange on Integrating PEPFAR Gender Strategies, aims to serve as a guide for PEFPAR program managers to facilitate south to south technical exchange in one or more of the PEPFAR gender strategies. It includes a list of other tools for technical exchange and templates for:

• Memoranda of agreement
• Scopes of work
• Monitoring and evaluation plans
• Work plans
• Activity Reports
• Progress and final reports, and
• Following up.

Although the framework focuses on PEPFAR gender strategies, the processes and templates could also be a resource for technical assistance providers or facilitators looking for new tools or a way to incorporate monitoring into a triangular or horizontal partnership.  The Framework can be accessed via the AIDSTAR-One website:  http://www.aidstar-one.com/facilitating_south_to_south_technical_su...