March 31, 2016
Article

Through the Advancing Partners &Communities (APC) project, USAID has given the Dominican Republic’s Institute of Virological Studies (IDEV) the equipment to provide anal pap smear services, diagnosis, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, HPV, and anal dysplasia, as part of the HIV/STIs package of services.

March 30, 2016
Article

On Thursday March 17, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) and the Advancing Partners and Communities (APC) – Guyana Project held their seventh monthly “Lunch Talk” forum focused on “Women and Workplace Discrimination” as part of a series of activities being held to commemorate International Women’s Day 2016 observed on March 8.

Summary

Advancing Partners & Communities received a grant from USAID’s “Ebola Response and Preparedness” funds authorized by the United States Congress to strengthen critical non-Ebola health services, in Sierra Leone.

March 17, 2016
Blog

In many places around the world, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women are tenuous at best, and years of progress can be washed away instantly by socio-political changes. Preserving—or reclaiming— the dignity of girls and women requires continuous efforts, even when it seems like the battle is already won.

March 17, 2016
Blog

In family planning service delivery, when countries attain improvements in key indicators such as contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) we feel proud about those achievements. Yet, within countries that have seen such gains, there are still hard-to-reach populations with exceptionally poor contraceptive use, as well as other health challenges; this is the case for many of the communities in which the Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project works.

March 10, 2016
Announcement

Angela De Leon Navarro, the Programmatic Director of the APC project in the Dominican Republic, received recognition on International Women's Day from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) for her commitment as a faculty member at the School of Journalism.

March 08, 2016
Announcement

The Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project in the Dominican Republic shared its thoughts on International Women's Day and the work the remains to be done in order to achieve gender equality.

February 18, 2016
Announcement

On February 4, the Advancing Partners & Communities project in Sierra Leone formally launched its work in Bombali District through a half-day kick-off meeting organized under the chairmanship of the District Health Management Team (DHMT), the District Council, and the Council of the Paramount Chiefs.

February 10, 2016
Blog

There are many possible benefits to integration in health programs, including cost-effectiveness, increased access to information and services, and more efficient and streamlined care for patients. Integration within communities and across sectors is one way Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) is working to advance community health through two projects implemented by HealthRight Kenya in Marakwet County and World Vision Kenya in Isiolo County.

Brief

The Community-based Health System Model briefs identify and discuss critical health system inputs and processes that have contributed to the implementation and expansion of community-based service delivery in different countries. Countries were selected for their geographic diversity, type of service delivery model, and programmatic scale-up. This brief reviews Nepal’s community health model to inform future policy, program design, and implementation in other countries.

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.

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