Network Development

In our increasingly fluid, information-based society, inter-organizational networks have become central to the promotion of public health. Inter-organizational networks provide flexibility and efficiency in organizational resource allocation, and continuity through political and economic fluctuations. Further, inter-organizational networks both depend upon and promote the personal networks which underlie them.

Among other things, clients find that both inter-organizational and personal networks help organizations and the professionals working within them to transcend their formal level of jurisdiction. A local health unit or official may seek to connect with a specific unit within the national Ministry of Health, or with the World Health Organization’s support units for local health services...or vice versa. Networks, if they become more formalized, often involve the advanced application of communications technologies to achieve functional ends such as database sharing.

Commers Health Consulting assists organizations seeking to build, broaden or strengthen their networks. Network building begins with an assessment of organizational needs and goals. This assessment leads to an ideal framework for a new network or new aspects of existing networks. Drawing on a global network of civil society organizations and practitioners, Commers Health Consulting provides targeted introductions and communication facilitation to promote network expansion. Thereafter, we assist clients with network maintenance, which often entails designing and building an information infrastructure to support the growing network. Finally, when necessary, Commers Health Consulting will help reconfigure networks in need of revitalization.

Commers Health Consulting has provided network development assistance to clients such as the National Union of Municipalities of The Netherlands (VNG), The Hague, The Netherlands.