May 01, 2019
Event

Watch the webcast recording from APC's May 1st event, Community Health Matters in the Journey to Self-Reliance, put on in collaboration with the Maternal Health Initiative at the Wilson Center.

April 12, 2019
Newsletter

This issue of the Quality Improvement Collaborative Newsletter tracks the timeline from the conceptualization, launch, and implementation of the QIC model at the PEPFAR-supported clinical sites. This model supports the Government of the Dominican Republic (GODR) expansion of the “Treatment for All” strategy to meet the country’s 90-90-90 treatment target established by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to achieve control of the HIV epidemic by 2020.

April 11, 2019
Article

As part of the APC work in Liberia, USAID has dedicated a rainwater harvester and wells constructed to supply water to two hospitals in Lofa County. The new wells and water storage system, as well as solar panels to provide energy to the wells, is part of the work to strengthen health services across eight counties in Liberia.

April 09, 2019
Blog

APC grantee, WellShare International, is piloting an important contraception initiative in six sub-counties of Iganga and Bugweri Districts, Uganda. In July 2018, 70 village health team members and 12 health workers were trained to teach clients to self-inject subcutaneously administered depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC).

Infographic

To improve health, the Government of Benin launched a package of evidence-based health interventions, known as PIHI (paquet d’interventions à haut impact), in 2010. APC helped three NGOs and the Ministry of Health introduce this package of services in ten USAID-priority health zones through community health workers. With APC assistance, the NGOs trained CHWs and provided ongoing support and supervision to deliver the PIHI in their communities.

Publication

The full dataset from which the Community Health Systems Catalog was developed is available here for public use. Please find the codebook, user guide, and original survey tool for additional context.

Infographic

This framework maps out a community service delivery system for family planning within a supportive political, socio-cultural environment. It highlights inputs, stakeholders, and other elements to consider when developing and strengthening community-based FP programs.

Infographic

La Republique du Benin est confrontee a des taux eleves de mortalite maternelle, neonatale et infantile et a un foible taux d'utilisation de la contraception moderne. En 2013, le gouvernement du Benin s'est engage a ameliorer la sante reproductive et a elargir l'acces aux services.

WellShare International is integrating DMPA SC self-injection in six sub-counties of Iganga and Bugweri Districts, Uganda in the context of a full and informed choice family planning program. Community Health Workers, known as Village Health Team (VHT) members in Uganda, and health workersoffered injectable contraceptives within youth-friendly community-based family planning services.

Project Highlight

APC's GBV programming in Iraq focuses on creating spaces within facilities to provide services and linking them to communities and homes where women and men can feel more comfortable sharing their need for support. Community mobilizers are trained on how to make referrals, identify cases, conduct safety audits, and develop community mobilization strategies before they are deployed to the community to talk about how to prevent GBV.

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

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