Project Highlight

Northern Iraq only recently emerged from war, and security challenges and the effects of trauma and displacement persist. To support a resilient and self-reliant approach to improving access to health services, the APC project is managing a grant with IMC that helps to link the development and humanitarian continuum in the Ninewa Plains with a target population of approximately 64,000 residents.

June 10, 2019
Blog

After nearly seven years in partnership with the Beninese government to strengthen community health systems and advance policies to support family planning, the APC project closing event on Thursday, May 23, was a time to showcase its successes and share challenges and lessons.

Journal Article

Read the journal article in Global Health: Science and Practice journal by APC/Benin staff about community health workers and facility-based health care providers who were trained to administer DMPA-SC safely and effectively in 10 health zones.

June 03, 2019
Event

Join experts from from some of the last decade’s largest and most impactful family planning programs, including APC's Liz Creel, to discover what works. We'll dig into four areas that have increased contraceptive prevalence, prevented maternal deaths, and accelerated progress toward achieving FP2020 targets, universal health coverage, and the sustainable development goals.

June 06, 2019
Event

Join APC during the Women Deliver 2019 Conference to talk about effective ways to engage men and boys in improving family planning outcomes. The event will be co-hosted by the Fertility Awareness for Community Transformation (FACT) Project, the Inter-agency Gender Working Group (IGWG) Male Engagement Task Force, and the Edna Adan Hospital University and Foundation.

Report

Between September 2012 and April 2019, APC supported community health programs in Benin, primarily in 10 USAID priority health zones and at the national level. The project focused on three main areas: 1) helping Benin reach its community health goals; 2) expanding and strengthening the country’s package of key health services and practices; and 3) institutionalizing and expanding community-based family planning.

Fact Sheet

Entre septembre 2012 et avril 2019, le projet APC financé par l’USAID et mis en oeuvre par JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. et FHI 360, en partenariat avec le Ministère de la Santé du Bénin, a renforcé le système de santé communautaire dans le pays. APC a travaillé dans 10 zones sanitaires prioritaires de l’USAID, ainsi qu’au niveau national, pour améliorer la prestation des services et les interventions à haut impact (PIHI) dans les communautés et élargir la planification familiale à base communautaire. 

Photo Gallery

Entre 2012 et 2018, le projet Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) financé par l’USAID, en partenariat avec le Ministère de la Santé du Bénin, a renforcé le système de santé communautaire, en particulier la planification familiale. Cette collection de photos raconte l'histoire de ce travail.

Publication

Learn more about APC's event at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC, on May 1, 2019. The program highlights the work that APC has done over the last seven years and includes information on our speakers as well as an infographic on the major results of the project.

Report

In 2013, the U.S. Government, with funding from PEPFAR, established the Local Capacity Initiative (LCI) to strengthen sustainability of national HIV and AIDS responses through increased advocacy capacity of local NGOs. Read the final report which talks about the work done from 2014 -2018, where USAID and CDC made awards to local organizations through APC in 14 countries/regions which focused on designing and implementing local solutions to policy barriers that impede key populations’access to HIV and other health services.

Pages

Photo credits: cover of report Kristen Devlin/JSI; USAID; Joshua Yospyn/JSI; Shahzad Noorani; Eidolon Films; Joshua Yospyn/JSI

Read the Advancing Partners & Communities Final Report

As APC comes to a close after seven years, we look back on how the project has improved the health and lives of countless people in thousands of communities in more than 40 countries.

More women and couples, especially those living in more conservative and hard-to-reach places, can now access a wide range of voluntary family planning methods. More patients know their HIV status and are getting the treatment they need. More survivors of Ebola virus disease are leading healthier lives with less stigma. More people who are vulnerable due to disability or live in challenging places now have access to rehabilitation, counseling, and health care.

Read the report » (PDF, 47 MB)

Our Mission

Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) advances and supports community programs that seek to improve the overall health of communities and achieve other health-related impacts, especially in relationship to family planning.

Read more »

Youth Dashboard

Interactive data dashboard on youth sexual and reproductive health in Asia and the Middle East.

View the dashboard »

Community Health
Systems Catalog

A snapshot of community health systems in different countries.

Explore the catalog »

APC Grants & Grantees

Strengthening NGOs through APC's grant mechanism and capacity building assistance.

Meet our grantees »

Jump to Country Profiles

Our Impact

APC works to advance and support community programs that seek to improve the overall health of communities, especially in relationship to family planning (FP). Through global technical leadership and collaboration, APC’s goal is to increase support for and commitment to community-based family planning in USAID priority countries. APC aims to increase access to quality FP services, expand the contraceptive method mix, and improve upon organizations’ capability to manage USAID funds and implement high quality and innovative community-based health programs.

Map showing APC office locations and country presence

Search APC Resources

Healthy Families Thrive: Why Community Health Matters in the Journey to Self-Reliance - APC Final Report, December 2019
December 2019 | Report
From October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2019, the Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project worked in more than 40 countries to improve the overall health of communities, with an emphasis on voluntary family planning. The project was implemented by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI) in collaboration with FHI 360. Over the past seven years, APC expanded from its initial focus on voluntary family planning to a broad array of community-based programs in four main health areas: CBFP, HIV and AIDS, post-Ebola recovery, and vulnerable populations, which include children in adversity, people with disabilities, and victims of war.
Advancing Family Planning in Last-Mile Communities: Voices of Experience
December 2019 | Report
Between 2012 and 2019, APC worked closely with a number of East African FBOs and CBOs to advance family planning in last-mile communities. Along with colleagues from these organizations and USAID, in September 2019 the project held a consultative workshop, “Voices of Experience,” to harvest the wisdom of individuals and groups working in this area and to inform new activities and possible funding going forward.
Developing and Strengthening the Disability and Rehabilitation Sector in Laos: Training Handbooks
December 2019 | Training Curriculum
The APC Laos TEAM offered trainings on Curriculum Development, Psychosocial Support, Training of Trainers (ToT), Project Cycle Management (PCM), and Gender Inclusion to all sub-recipients. These trainings are participatory, reflective and allow as much time as possible for ‘learning by doing’ and practical application of skills and knowledge. The participant handbooks below were used in eight trainings for TEAM sub-recipients.
Developing and Strengthening the Disability and Rehabilitation Sector in Laos
December 2019 | Assessment Tool
This Organizational Assessment template was used by the APC Laos TEAM for all applicants for TEAM funding to look at capacity in grants management, financial management, human resources, activity implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Latest News

December 19, 2019
Watch the recording from APCs farewell webinar highlighting the project's critical work and legacy in community health in more than 40 countries over the past seven years (2012–2019).
September 30, 2019
Since 2012, the USAID-funded Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project has worked in over 40 countries to improve community health systems and build the capacity of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to provide basic health services, expand access to voluntary family planning, and connect people to health facilities.
July 24, 2019
View the recording of the webinar put on by APC grantee Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) that talks about practical tools to inform communities in language they can understand of the variety of choices they have to time and space pregnancies. The webinar explored how you can use these tools in your community-based programs or develop your own for the areas where you work. They also looked at how to develop, test, and translate tools that work for communities, and explored an example of a training curriculum developed for Islamic leaders. These lessons are applicable not just for family planning, but for all community-based programs.

Our Partners

fhi logo


Top photo credits (left to right): Puskar Khanal/JSI; Dominic Chavez/World Bank.