Community Action Collab: Harnessing partnerships and alliances to deliver impact at scale

“It’s about getting the right people at the right time in the right place”, Shiv Kumar, co-founder Catalyst Group

Collaboration is the key to getting things done, but very often response to calamity and catastrophe is in silos and confused; this greatly impacts aid and help to those who need it the most. Shiv Kumar, co-founder of the Catalyst Group, in conversation with Miloni Bhatt, Editor- Digital Broadcast, EconomicTimes.com talked about harnessing partnerships and alliances to deliver impact at scale.

“Our journey of working on emergencies began during the tsunami. And we saw that it was a big jolt for the country under the blue. It was a scramble, we were getting blankets where we didn't need blankets, we needed boats for the fishermen but we were not getting that…what we managed to do looked like scrambling all the time,” said Shiv Kumar, Co-Founder of Catalyst Group.


Compared to other humanitarian crises, Covid was a different ball game. Its impacts were wide, deep and long-term and still haunt us to this day. Covid not only impacted our health but also our livelihood. Kumar recognised that the only way to effectively respond to a situation like Covid was through collaboration. “Unless we all come together, the government, media, private sector and civil society, this is not going to be an issue easily doable by anybody, as much as the government should provide the leadership, it is important to rally. So, that's where Covid Action Collab was born,” said Kumar.

The Covid Action Collab, now known as the Community Action Collab (CAC), harnessed the power of collaboration to create real impact. CAC focused on helping the most marginalised communities. ‘It was the poorest, the most marginalised communities who were really struggling. And that's what we decided to focus on. We are talking about street vendors, talking about beggars, we're talking about sex workers, transgender communities, with whom we focused, and what we're very happy about is 2.5 crore of such individuals, who are, what we call- special individuals, we were able to deliver a number of services- food, medicines, healthcare, and a number of things, including vaccinations. So that's been the broader impact,’ stated Kumar.

Bringing the right people to the right place at the right time can bring out the power of collaboration and fill the gaps that are otherwise not being filled. However, collaboration is not straightforward. Collaboration requires trust between all partners. According to Kumar, there are two main issues when it comes to trust building- resources and egos. He said, “because the total amount of resources required and what we actually have is so vastly different, even civil societies compete with each other and therefore, trust cannot be built easily. The second thing is- what we call the logos and egos challenge, when you want your logo and you want attributability to your work, that comes in the way, and a big problem is the format.” Collaboration can also be difficult due to the fact that partners are not always equal. In order to overcome these challenges partners need to be open-minded, communicating constantly and working towards the same end goal.

In order to create large-scale impact and be prepared for emergencies, there are four major partners that have to be involved- government, civil societies, the private sector and the media. Although collaboration can be difficult, and predicting disaster is nearly impossible, Kumar strongly believes that it is our responsibility to be prepared. “The key is to be prepared. If you go to the Kendrapara region of Odisha, it used to be hit by cyclones almost every year and thousands of people were dying. Today, you go there, and you see that disaster preparedness has saved lives. So, I feel we have a responsibility to be prepared. And whether we will be able to respond as well every time, I think time will tell us, but I think it’s important to be prepared,” added Kumar.