The CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) is a multi-country, multi-partner initiative providing financial support and on-the-ground technical guidance to strengthen host country efforts to eradicate polio.

CGPP began in 1999 with USAID-funded grants to international and national NGOs to support polio eradication by mobilizing communities to participate in immunization campaigns, routine immunization, and Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance.

The original idea for the project came from USAID’s Ellyn Ogden, and the inception of CORE Group around the same time played a direct role in CGPP’s development. Learn more in this video:

THE SECRETARIAT MODEL

CORE Group’s proven Secretariat Model was first developed through CGPP.

Each CGPP country has their own secretariat – a small team of neutral technical advisors, independent from any one implementing partner.

The secretariat facilitates communication, coordination, and transparent decision-making among all partners – unifying the community-level expertise of international and local NGOs with the knowledge and strategies of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative partners.

Through this model, the countries effectively coordinate and promote civil society engagement in polio eradication, while simultaneously injecting a crucial community-level component through the coordinated activities of thousands of community health workers.

Learn more about the Secretariat Model:

CORE GROUP POLIO PROJECT TODAY

When CGPP started in 1999, polio was endemic in dozens of countries with thousands of new cases arising annually.  Since then, CGPP has worked with over a dozen international NGOS and more than 50 local NGOs to effectively implement polio eradication activities in the hardest-to-reach areas of Angola, India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda, South Sudan and Bangladesh.

Through the dedication and hard work of CGPP, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and thousands of volunteers, polio was reduced to three endemic countries and only 37 total cases in 2016.

With this incredible success and momentum, we may see the final case of wild polio virus in the world in 2017!