Developing Scenarios for Partners to Work Together to Improve Women’s and Children’s Health: A Planning Guide

Overview

Scenario building is a methodology that allows us to make sense of a complex issue and to understand how the actors involved prioritise forces that shape the future. It is widely used to develop a deeper understanding of how future events might unfold and affect present plans and strategies. Scenarios can be used to ask “what if” questions and consider uncertainties, but also to understand different partnership models, opportunities and challenges, to align and evaluate programmes, to improve strategic planning, dialogue, accountability and transparency.

For Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) processes, this Scenario Building Guide outlines how different constituencies can work together in different ways. The methodology identifies ways of aligning action in areas where there is potential to accelerate progress and achieve greater impact by working together than individual partners would achieve alone. This Guide and methodology is likely to benefit different stakeholders, including RMNCH+A programme implementers, governments and their partners, donor agencies and the PMNCH Secretariat. Both PMNCH and it’s members have expressed interest in developing an approach that helps to identify scenarios and options for collaborative work, and discuss future challenges and opportunities.