The Advancing Partners and Communities (APC) global project focuses on community-based family planning. The project works to strengthen global leadership and advocacy for family planning, expand community-based programs through the efficient administration of grants and strengthen local partners through technical support and capacity development. APC is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and is implemented by JSI Research and Training Institute (JSI), with FHI 360 as a partner.
Under APC, FHI 360 provides technical assistance at the central level to facilitate technical working groups and donor coordination meetings and to develop a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan for family planning. FHI 360 also organizes trainings, data collection and data analyses workshops to help monitor progress toward meeting family planning targets.
Botswana
The priority group for APC in Botswana is adolescent girls and young women, who are particularly vulnerable to new infections because of prevailing gender norms. The project strengthens the community response to the HIV epidemic through community empowerment, community HIV testing and counseling, community care for tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, HIV prevention for adolescent girls and young women, gender norm awareness and care for those affected by gender-based violence.
APC work in Botswana is continuing through the Accelerating Progress in Communities (APC 2.0) project to increase local access to care and treatment services for people living with HIV and ensure community support for these patients.
Malawi: Sayana® Press study evaluating suitability for self-injection
The Malawi Ministry of Health and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)/Malawi requested that FHI 360, through the APC project, assess home- and self-injection of the Sayana Press, an injectable contraceptive. View results of the study.
Tanzania
In Tanzania, APC provides national support to the Reproductive and Child Health Department of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Activities include:
- Support to the Reproductive and Child Health Department in using data to manage, coordinate and monitor the implementation of the national family planning program
- Assistance to the Reproductive and Child Health Department in strengthening and scaling up community-based family planning services
- Expansion of FHI 360’s Mobile for Reproductive Health (m4RH) program to address the sexual, reproductive health and family planning needs of young people
Uganda
In Uganda, the APC project builds on a decade of work in community-based family planning conducted under the Contraceptive and Reproductive Health Research Technologies and Research Utilization (CRTU) and Program Research for Strengthening Services (PROGRESS) projects. Through APC, FHI 360 implements integrated community health interventions in 15 districts; these will be supported by community-based family planning policies initiated by the Ministry of Health.
In addition to delivering community-based family planning and counseling services, activities include the development of a costed national implementation strategy and policy dialogue related to the inclusion of family planning provisions in drug shops at the community level.
