A case study on the public-private-partnership in "Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project" using MIT D-Lab's P.ACT (Patnreship Co-design Toolkit)

Background and Objectives: In Ghana, child malnutrition is still a predominant challenge with a national stunting prevalence rate of 21% (2018). The Ajinomoto Foundation (TAF) is leading the "Ghana Nutrition Improvement Project" aiming to improve nutrition of children aged 6 months to 24 months by providing a nutrition supplement called "KOKO Plus", which is added to traditional complementary food, koko, corn-base porridge. TAF is engaged in a collaboration with Ghana Health Service (GHS), Ministry of Health to deliver effective nutrition education to mothers, which is considered to be a key factor for the success of the project. Published in 2020, the P.ACT (Partnership Co-design Toolkit) was co-developed by MIT D-Lab and SEED to equip impact practitioners with practical tools and methods to co-create inclusive hybrid partnerships. The objective of this study was to apply the P.ACT to strengthen the public-private partnership for nutrition improvement. Methods: The Public Private Partnership between GHS and TAF was analyzed by using a selected number of P.ACT tools through participatory workshops (total six on-line workshops) that convened representatives from TAF and GHS and were facilitated by MIT D-Lab. Results: The P.ACT workshops enabled GHS and TAF to identify key success factors as well as opportunities to improve and strengthen their partnership for the future. The partners identified the following factors as some of the key strengths they can leverage and build upon for the future of the collaboration: strong alignment for impact goals, complementary capabilities, clear value chain roles and balanced returns. The P.ACT engagement also revealed several opportunities to further strengthen the partnership model: co-creating a dashboard of Key Success Metrics (KPIs) and sharing a plan to reach financial sustainability. A follow-up evaluation of the partnership and an assessment of the KPIs were conducted after the P.ACT workshops. Conclusions: The case study demonstrated that P.ACT is an effective Toolkit in diagnosing and improving public-private partnerships for nutrition improvement projects. It was useful in achieving the key objective of providing effective nutrition education through the partnership.