The new era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has enhanced the conversation around the need for partnerships (SDG 17) and has accelerated a conversation about how organisations should best work together. The success of each SDG is linked to the progress of all the other Goals, especially when we consider the most vulnerable, such as children in their first 1,000 days of life. A mother’s primary concern is a healthy, thriving child able to reach his/her full potential. The differences between nutrition and early childhood development messages do not matter to her, nor do technical distinctions between water, sanitation and hygiene, and maternal, newborn and child health interventions. To a mother, the essential elements which contribute to her child’s well-being are interconnected.
Therefore, meeting the full spectrum of needs for a mother and her child requires greater collaboration and
innovation among stakeholders from different sectors and leads us to a new way of working, free from our traditional development partitions.
The BabyWASH Coalition, made up of more than 30 organisations from civil society, funding organisations, the
private sector and academia, was set up to explore how best to integrate sectors and break down barriers that
hinder collaboration. By prioritizing advocacy, the creation of programme guidance for integration, and the
development of integration metrics, the Coalition is advancing the conversation around the benefits and challenges
of integration. The BabyWASH Coalition hosted this conversation around integration to further the case for sensible
integration and to collect case studies and tools that could be helpful for other organisations. What follows is a
summary of each of the three topics.

Bibliographic information

Hynes, P. (2016). Thematic Discussion: Integrating sectors to address the holistic needs of children Thematic Discussion Series Synthesis World Vision / BabyWASH Coalition

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