Both Intra and inter-agency coordination is important to ensure the success of implementing community programs. Agencies act as sources of external intervention when a community’s resources are not adequate to meet the community’s needs. Intra agency coordination entails coordination within an agency to achieve intended objectives. This coordination is very important as it ensures that each person within the agency works to achieve the ultimate goal. For example, if an agency is focusing on healthy living practices in relation to cancer, different individuals representing different departments such as nutrition, screening, gender and reproductive health, and IT will all work towards the common objective.
The input of each department is essential in reducing the incidence and prevalence rates of cancer by a certain percentage, and any sluggishness by either one of the departments would mean that the overall objective would not be achieved. It is necessary that an agency does its best to avoid gaps that would necessitate a similar intervention in the future in case the agency does not yield any positive impact. Agencies are implementing bodies of already studied interventions; therefore, if a project fails, it only means Intra agency coordination was not properly developed. In case of successful implementation of an intervention, the agency needs to give a report to existing agencies within the region to give the progress of what has been achieved and is yet to be achieved.
A particular agency cannot succeed without taking the community’s socio-cultural system into account. Intra agency coordination cannot be fully achieved without incorporating members of the community, who are fully aware of the community’s needs. Community members are the best people to assess and determine how a project can be integrated to fit into the lives of the community without infringing on their values and norms. Intra agency allows the staff to deliberate on issues and to devise plans that can be used to deliver the project collectively without seeming like separate entities. When an agency is faced with adversity, for instance increasing dropout rates, intra agency coordination is paramount to this end in developing ways to encourage beneficiaries of the project to embrace the project.
Inter-agency coordination is necessary to avoid duplication of resources, which could otherwise be used for other interventions. Identifying what other agencies are offering is very important to determine prevailing gaps that need to be addressed. If one agency focuses on healthy living practices by advocating for healthy nutrition, frequent medical checkups and healthy sexual life, another agency can integrate this provision of health care by promoting hygiene and sanitation while ensuring that the community gets access to adequate and safe water for use. Inter-agency coordination enables agencies to utilize data, previously collected by preceding agencies, such as incidence and prevalence reports of certain diseases that might be of interest. A new agency can use this data for planning.
This knowledge of intra and inter-agency coordination has enabled me to realize the essence of working as a team in the provision of care for people within the community. Different individuals, groups and organizations within the community have different resources that can collectively be used to help the community in meeting its health needs. In the same way, different agencies come together with different goals to help the community, different individuals with their different and unique skills can come together to help take care of the community.