Capacity Building Tools Collection

Increasing local capacity is a central focus of Advancing Partners & Communities (APC). Through targeted assistance, APC has worked to prepare organizations to receive USAID funds and implement successful programs. Explore the capacity building tools developed by APC to help ensure the sustainability and scalability of community-based approaches.

Family Planning

Community Health Policy Matters
Video

APC’s Community Health Policy Matters video tells the story of fictional characters Winnie and Mary, and how a fragmented health system affects each woman’s ability to access family planning services in her respective community. This animated video highlights how policy can improve the health system for women.

Community Health Worker Provision of Injectable Contraceptives: An Effective CBA2I Strategy
Brief

These resources are intended to be used by advocates, program managers, policymakers, donors, ministry of health staff, and other key stakeholders to craft a strategy for building support for CBA2I among key decision makers in country. Because community-based access to injectable contraceptives (CBA2I) has the potential to significantly expand access to and use of modern contraceptive methods, several countries are employing CBA2I strategies to help achieve their FP2020 goals.

Family Planning/HIV Integration Quality Assurance Tool
Toolkit

This tool is designed to assess the extent to which facilities offering integrated family planning (FP) and HIV services are meeting basic minimum standards for the provision of quality FP services, identify any gaps in the provision of integrated services, and serve as a starting point for improving FP service delivery.

Subaward Resources & Guidance
Guide

These generic grantee guidance materials are for organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding and need assistance meeting the funding requirements and compliance for USAID. The guidance materials will be especially helpful for organizations who have not received USAID funding in the past.

Health Systems

Community Health Systems Catalog
Toolkit

The Community Health Systems Catalog is an innovative and interactive online reference tool on country community health systems. The Catalog covers USAID priority countries for population and reproductive health and countries with a demonstrated interest in community-based family planning. This resource is intended for ministries of health, program managers, researchers, and donors interested in learning more about the current state of community health systems.

Developing and Strengthening the Disability and Rehabilitation Sector in Laos
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.

Developing and Strengthening the Disability and Rehabilitation Sector in Laos: Training Handbooks
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.

Routine Health Information Systems e-Learning Curriculum
E-Learning

This 8-module course covers the basics of developing and maintaining a routine health information system. The target users are users and developers of health information systems. This self-paced Routine Health Information Systems (RHIS) curriculum is adapted from a workshop-based global standard RHIS curriculum developed by MEASURE Evaluation with worldwide partners. This online curriculum provides didactic content and enables learners to train intermittently, repeatedly, and for a duration that accommodates their schedules.

Tip Sheets: Responding to Funding Opportunities
Training Curriculum

This resource was inspired by a training that FHI 360 conducted for local organizations in Papua New Guinea through the Local Capacity Initiative (LCI). After the training, participating organizations requested that the information be made available in the form of a reference document. Tip Sheets: Responding to Funding Opportunities was born of this request and was based on training materials and input from key stakeholders.

HIV

Community Scorecard Toolkit: Empowering Communities and Health Care Providers to Lead Change
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.

Integrating Gender-Based Violence Screening Into HIV Services Provided by Non-governmental Organizations in Guyana
Toolkit

The following protocol was created to assist community-based nongovernmental organizations in Guyana with implementing gender-based violence screening. Social workers can use this tool to understand ways to detect GBV and to better prepare themselves for implementation of GBV screening.

Local Capacity Initiative Facilitated Discussion and Capacity Assessment Tool: Facilitator’s Manual
Manual

The purpose of this manual is to help determine technical assistance needs and to conduct an assessment of an organization’s policy, advocacy, and organizational systems capacity. The assessment consists of a facilitated self-assessment as well as optional stakeholder interviews. The tool is divided into five major sections (LCI outcome areas); four of these areas focus on critical elements for advocacy and one focuses on overall organizational capacity. Additionally, there are in-depth domains associated with each larger outcome, which can be used to further review capacity.

Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) Tool
Assessment Tool

The Organizational Capacity Assessment (OCA) tool is designed to measure the overall capacity of an organization. It assesses capability in five key areas: governance, organizational management, program management, human resources management, and financial management. The results are compiled into an agreed-upon action plan that maps priority areas and actions that the organization will take to address problems and gaps.

Workshop Curriculum: Developing Policy Advocacy Strategies
Training Curriculum

A learning package focused on developing an advocacy strategy, specifically to advocate for policy change to address barriers to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.

Post-Ebola

Advocacy Goals and Objectives
Training Guide

A worksheet adapted from PATH’s training entitled Stronger Health Advocates, Greater Health Impacts to help organizations determine how to define their goals and objectives.

Advocacy Planning Worksheet
Training Guide

A worksheet adapted from PATH’s training entitled Stronger Health Advocates, Greater Health Impacts with templates for developing advocacy objectives and an advocacy work plan.

Community Health Worker Job Aid
Job Aid

This job aid provides basic, visual information for community health workers (CHWs) in Sierra Leone when assessing who qualifies for free care under the government’s program. It also demonstrates common health problems among Ebola survivors and basic mental health information.

Curriculum de formation des prestataires des manifestations cliniques post-Ebola
Training Curriculum

Curriculum de formation des prestataires de soins pour le traitement des manifestations cliniques post-Ebola des guéris, développé par le Ministère de la Santé et projet APC (mise à jour : Mai 2018).

EVD Survivor Clinical Guidelines Training Curriculum and Trainer's Guide
Training Curriculum

This is an orientation for frontline health workers on providing appropriate and respectful care for EVD survivors; the curriculum takes three days to complete.

Facility Assessment Tool
Assessment Tool

This tool is designed to measure staff capacity, infrastructure capacity, and equipment capacity in a limited resources health facility. The results from the assessment inform the type and level of support an implementing partner might provide to health facilities. In this case, the aim of the support provided was to improve the quality of medical services for Ebola survivors. As such, priority was placed on improving areas most pertinent to survivor needs.

Facility Management Committee Operational Guidelines
Guide

Developed by the Government of Sierra Leone, Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s Directorate of Primary Health Care with support from Advancing Partners & Communities, the Facility Management Committee (FMC) Operational Guidelines define stakeholder roles and responsibilities in promoting FMC functionality and sustainability, and recommend implementation approaches and tools.

Facility Management Committee Training Manual and Tools
Training Guide

Developed by the Government of Sierra Leone, Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s Directorate of Primary Health Care with support from Advancing Partners & Communities, the Facility Management Committee (FMC) Training Manual and Tools promotes the resources needed to empower and support functional, sustainable FMCs. It is a companion document to the FMC Operational Guidelines (PDF, 947 KB).

Mental Health Assessment Poster
Job Aid

This one-page poster provides a framework for assessing whether someone has basic symptoms of emotional distress, and what to do in each of several scenarios.

Mentorship Assessment Tools for Guidance
Assessment Tool

These tools are intended to supplement the above training and be used at health centers where EVD survivors are being treated. Tools include assessments for county or district health teams and clinicians, as well as a patient exit interview template and materials checklist.

mhGap Training Material
Training Curriculum

Developed originally by WHO, this is an evidence-based, clinical guide for the assessment and management of mental, and neurological disorders in non-specialized health settings. It includes an overview guide, as well as selected presentation modules on essential care and practice, depression, psychoses, epilepsy, and self-harm/suicide. Each training module takes three days to complete in a classroom setting.

Post-Ebola Recovery Toolkit
Toolkit

This toolkit is a resource for organizations and individuals involved in recovery efforts in the period following an infectious disease outbreak, such as the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa in 2014-2016. Its goal is to provide governments, donors, NGOs, and survivor groups with guidance and templates for responding to issues related to health systems recovery after a major outbreak.

Psychological First Aid (PFA) Pocket Guide
Job Aid

This brief guide describes how to approach someone who may be experiencing a mental health problem. It is based on the principles of “look, listen, and link.” It also provides ethical “do’s and don’ts” to avoid causing any further harm, provide the best care possible, and act only in the person’s best interest.

Selecting Advocacy Activities
Training Guide

A worksheet adapted from PATH’s training entitled Stronger Health Advocates, Greater Health Impacts to help organizations determine which activities will be most helpful to furthering their advocacy strategy.

Stigma Reduction Training - Community Healing Dialogue Training
Training Curriculum

The primary goal of these community-based trainings is to provide peer-to-peer support at the local level; they also help to build relationships within communities.

Strengthening Health Services as Part of the Post-Ebola Transition in Sierra Leone: Community Engagement Implementation Toolkit
Toolkit

The purpose of this toolkit is to guide the community engagement process for improved community ownership of peripheral health unit quality and catchment area health outcomes in support of the project’s Community Engagement Implementation Strategy.

Top photo banner: health extension workers are greeted by a pregnant woman at her home in the Chancho Buba neighbourhood in Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Credit: Shahzad Noorani.