ABSTRACT
NicaSalud, the SCION, began as one of several projects funded by USAID’s NGO Networks for Health; it was designed to explore new models for health intervention. In the beginning there were eight international NGOs. The creation of NicaSalud can be understood as a process with three phrases: (1) the recruitment of the staff of the NCO, (2) the enlargement of the inter-organizational network to include local NGOs and (3) the establishment of coordination processes with these mechanisms available to the NCO. Several of these coordination mechanisms can also be viewed as benefits for the members of the NicaSalud inter-organizational network; these and other benefits create an Archimedean leverage effect.
