UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Coalition Building | Roles in a UCGH Coalition | Establishing a UCGH Campus Coalition

Coalition Building

UCGH campus coalitions…
UCGH campus coalitions currently exist at many universities across the country (with a variety of names and structures) to coordinate various global health activities and efforts. Each coalition serves as an umbrella organization for pre-existing university groups, centers and faculty working on global health related issues. The individual coalition structure and goals vary from school to school, but they all work to create a forum for the exchange of ideas and the strengthening of the campus’s global health movement and voice.

What is a coalition?

• A coalition is comprised of students and organizations interested in global health issues that agree to work together towards a common goal by collaborating on campaigns and projects.
• Coalition building is a skill for students who want to change the balance of power. By pooling resources and working together, student organizations can advance their interests and win power.

What do UCGH coalitions do?

• Coalitions bring together the major student players in global health on a particular campus such as student organizations, professors, research centers, administration, etc.
• Players join forces to achieve global health goals that are important to the members of their university community.
• Coalitions focus on issues and projects that involve global health advocacy and professional development initiatives (ex: establishing global health curriculum).

Why create a coalition?

• Empower members of the university to take action for the projects/campaigns they desire
• Promote collaboration on common projects/campaigns
• Avoid “stealing” members from other organizations events
• Pool resources
• Increase communication among groups
• Create long-term social change
• Strengthen member organizations by allowing them to focus on their objectives, while still being able to tap into the resources and projects/campaigns of other coalition members

Questions to Ask…

• What would your unifying issue/common goal be?
  A good unifying issue is broad and inclusive. It’s usually best to say that your unifying issue is global health and use that as an umbrella to pull in all relevant organizations.

• What resources can other organizations provide?

At the coalition interest meeting at Dartmouth College an undergraduate student stood and said, “We have all of this money to spend on global health programming, but we don’t have enough good programs.” A medical student gasped and replied, “We have tons of programs, but no money!”

• What other organizations are working on your issue?
  If there are only one or two organizations that do work related to global health and students aren’t really sure what global health entails, then your school might not be ready for a coalition. But if there are more than three (at some schools there are upward of 20 different organizations working on global health issues.) then you’re ready for a coalition.

Tips for successful coalition building…

• Choose a unifying issue that will bring people together
• Respect member interests. There must be a balance between the goals of the coalition and of the individual organizations
• Make sure to take everyone’s opinion into account; there will be times when some members do not support the coalition.
• Communicate
• Make decisions carefully. Finding consensus is very important
• Distribute credit where credit is due
• Be inclusive. The more people feel ownership of the coalition, the harder they will work toward its success.
• Develop a common strategy. The strength of a coalition is in its unity. Work together to develop a strategy that makes sense for everyone
• Use strategic recruitment. The core members should determine which organizations to approach for membership

Common Coalition Pitfalls…

• Turf issues: Organizations may be guarded about sharing their work and members. When starting a coalition you have to convince organizations that working together will benefit them
• Domination by one group or organization
• Failure to create leadership within the coalition
• Lack of sustainability: It is important to teach future organizational leaders the importance of the coalition to ensure they feel as much dedication to the group as current leaders.

Roles in a UCGH Campus Coalition

• UCGH campus organizer (“the convener”) – Every coalition must have a person (or persons) who will take the responsibility of coordinating the activities of the coalition, corresponding with the UCGH Outreach Fellow based in Washington D.C. and communicating effectively with all of the major global health players on their campus.

  The UCGH campus organizer should be passionate about global health, be able to communicate effectively, remain impartial, have strong negotiation skills, and organizational management skills. He/she must also have an understanding of global health advocacy and professional development. To learn more about becoming a UCGH campus organizer visit the “Join UCGH” section of the website.

• Steering committee members (SC) – These core members provide the vision and decide the goals of the coalition. The SC must be willing to work as a team and give credit to the other coalition members. Yearly rotation of the SC members allows other organizations to feel a sense of ownership.
• Members – The workers that keep the coalition alive; they provide people, issue expertise, funding resources, etc. It is important that the SC members and campus organizers pull their equal weight in the work. Each organization should appoint one or two key people to represent their group at the coalition.
• UCGH outreach fellow –The fellow is the national organizer of UCGH. This person is based in Washington, D.C. and coordinates all UCGH programming. The fellow can help you establish your coalition, give you cutting edge advocacy and professional development information and provide you with connections for hosting large events and speakers.

Establishing a UCGH Campus Coalition

1. Designate a UCGH campus organizer. Fill out the campus organizer application form and contact the UCGH outreach fellow to discuss next steps at your campus.
2. Recruit core members – Who are the key global health organizations/players on your campus? Identify these organizations based on their projects/campaigns, resource contribution and leadership potential. Approach organizations using strategic recruitment and a one on one meeting.
3. Hold a general meeting – Introduce the idea of the coalition. Invite the UCGH Outreach Fellow to attend this meeting to speak more about UCGH coalitions and the benefits of national affiliation.
4. After the first general meeting:
   • Create mission statements. It’s important that there be agreement on these statements.
   • Create a structure for the coalition. This has to be a shared task, with everyone having a chance to contribute ideas. There is a broad range of possibilities here, from practically no governance to a very clear, formal structure, like having a steering committee of core members. If a steering committee is formed, usually the founding members of the coalition are the leaders for the first year with elections held later.
   • Strategic Planning
     • What are your goals for advocacy and/or professional development?
     • What part of UCGH work you want to participate in or focus on?
   • Start to make an action plan to implement those goals (See UCGH Action Guide)
5. Communicate with the UCGH outreach fellow. Remember to report back to the Fellow; seek them out for help and get informed with what’s going on at other campuses and at the national scene.