Toolkit

A community scorecard toolkit was created as a part of APC’s work with The Local Capacity Initiative, which was established by the U.S. Government to strengthen the sustainability of national HIV and AIDS responses. The scorecard helps implementers of community health programs monitor and improve the quality of services at health facilities. It focuses on improving service quality and health outcomes for key populations receiving HIV services at community health care facilities.

October 26, 2018
Article

With help from USAID, APC enabled Liberian Ebola survivors to receive life changing cataract surgery in a program that also contributed to research on the persistence of Ebola virus in the eyes of survivors. This knowledge can help guide future outbreak response and helps us understand how the Ebola virus affects survivors many months after recovery. This complex program was made possible through a unique collaboration of faith-based organizations, universities, non-governmental organizations and government institutions.

October 24, 2018
Article

On Friday, October 19, 2018, USAID Liberia Mission Director, Dr. Anthony Chan, officially turned over to the MOH a modern Infectious Disease Outpatient Clinic situated on the JFK Medical Center compound. The clinic was recently renovated through APC's ETP&SS program. 

Reflections

In Sierra Leone, integrating Clinical Training Officers and Referral Coordinators within the existing health structures of service delivery and management has strengthened their mandate and benefited other categories of vulnerable groups.

August 31, 2018
Blog

Read a blog by APC and APC grantee, ChildFund International, about a successful billboard campaign in Zambia used to help raise awareness around family planning and expanding the method mix. 

August 17, 2018
General News

The APC grantee, Africa Coordinating Center for the Abandonment of FGM/C (ACCAF), is leading the way to elimination of FGM/C and improving health outcomes for women and children in Africa and the Middle East. Hosted at the College of Health Sciences at the University of Nairobi, ACCAF has worked for 15 years with African and global partners to accelerate the process of elimination and to highlight ongoing need for action. 

July 26, 2018
Event

APC held a high-profile closing ceremony for the Guinea-based Ebola Transmission Prevention & Survivor Services (ETP&SS) program on July 26, 2018 at the Hotel Riviera in Conakry. During the half-day event, Minster of Health Édouard Niankoye Lamah thanked the APC project for its efforts aiding Ebola survivors in Guinea and recommended continued follow-up to prevent a future outbreak.

As Guinea’s Ebola survivors recovered from the virus and were discharged from Ebola treatment centers, they faced a new and perhaps even more difficult situation, coming home. The APC project engaged people from 60 communities in the districts most affected by the Ebola outbreak to combat stigma that prevents survivors from reintegrating into their communities and getting the health care they need.

Video

Watch an interview with Guinea’s Director of National Health Security Agency, Dr. Sakoba Keita, discussing his perspectives on their country’s post-Ebola response strategy, including priority actions, benefits, challenges, gaps, best practices, and what could have been done differently.

August 02, 2018
Webinar

The fifth webinar in the Expanding Contraceptive Choice series will be on Vasectomy. The webinar was on Tuesday, August 2, 2018, from 9:00–10:00 A.M. ET.

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.