Transformative Partnerships

Toolkit for Building Partnerships in Digital Health

Forming partnerships is an art, much like baking. There is not one right recipe for a pie, just like there is not for a successful partnership. But there are ingredients that most successful partnerships, just like most delicious pies, have in common. By combining practical lessons from DCCC members’ experiences and insights from literature, we have created a guide for building and sustaining partnerships in digital health, based on 8 building blocks.

DCCC fosters the creation of transformative partnerships: multi-stakeholder collaborations that pursue long-term, systemic change in health systems. Unlike transactional partnerships, which are typically bilateral, short-term, and contract-based, transformative partnerships go further, even while remaining grounded in regulatory and contractual procedures. They emphasize trust-based collaboration, shared goals, joint decision-making, and mutual accountability. By bringing together actors from government, the private sector, civil society, funders, and academia, these partnerships leverage diverse strengths to achieve sustainable impact.

Forming partnerships can be challenging

Even when partners share clear goals, they can encounter similar hurdles, like finding the right partner, aligning organizational cultures, establishing joint governance, and evaluating impact. The good news? Many organizations have faced these challenges before, and there are ways how to navigate them.

This toolkit is designed to help guide you

We have created this toolkit to be used like a guiding recipe. Each of the 8 building blocks offers practical insights, tools, and strategies to navigate challenges and build transformative partnerships that aim to deliver real, lasting impact.

Just like a recipe, we intend this toolkit to be used as a source of inspiration. See what you already have, and what works well. Decide what is missing to make your partnerships transformative. And feel free to skip or double some ingredients, you know what works best for you.

Eight building blocks for Transformative Partnerships

How to use this toolkit?

Explore the core themes of partnering

Each building block highlights a key theme in the partnering journey. Whether you are looking to understand governance, identify the right partner, or improve collaboration, you will find practical insights tailored to each topic.

Apply throughout the partnership

The building blocks are designed to guide you through the full partnership lifecycle; from forming a partnership to sustaining and evolving it. While all these ingredients are important, their roles may shift and evolve over time. At the center is relationship cultivation, which supports every stage and underpins all other elements. Already in a partnership? You can jump straight to the building block that addresses your current challenge.

Share your experience

This toolkit is built on the collective knowledge of DCCC members, and we are always looking to grow. Help us develop it further by sharing your own lessons and insights from digital health partnerships.