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!

 

Since 2010, CORE Group has been a partner on The TOPS Program, a USAID/Food for Peace (FFP)-funded program that builds the capacity of FFP grantees and improves the quality of implementation through fostering collaboration, innovation, and knowledge sharing around food security and nutrition best practices.

CORE Group leads the knowledge management team at TOPS and runs the project’s open community of practice – The Food Security and Nutrition (FSN) Network.

Learn more about CORE Group’s role over the last seven years:

CORE Group’s Contributions to TOPS

• CORE Group has planned and implemented nine TOPS/FSN Network Knowledge Sharing Meetings, bringing together implementers, donors and researchers to learn new skills, and discuss and explore emerging issues and recent tools. These meetings prioritize knowledge exchange through discussion and activity to stimulate cross-organizational collaboration and learning.
• Under CORE Group’s leadership, the FSN Network Knowledge Management Task Force has flourished, bringing together food security professionals from all technical sectors in a community focused on knowledge sharing for improved implementation of food security and nutrition programs. A few of this group’s accomplishments include:
  • Creating the Knowledge Management Task Force Newsletter (Read the latest issue)
  • Developing new resources, including Supporting Communities of Practice: A TOPS Quick Guide to Linking Development Practitioners, Designing Participatory Meetings and Brownbags: A TOPS Quick Guide to Linking Development Practitioners, Participatory Facilitation Techniques Workshop Curriculum, and A Guide to Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for a Food Security and Nutrition Program.
  • Reviewing and voting to recommend several Knowledge Management resources
  • Hosting events and trainings on topics such as video storytelling, learning agendas, knowledge management strategies, facilitation, and Twitter.
• CORE Group has turned the FSN Network website into a destination for the food security and nutrition community. This capacity-building hub engages community members to share knowledge, resources, and promising practices so they can learn from each other, identify gaps, and develop solutions. The website features a resource library, upcoming and past events, a discussion forum, task forces, and more.
• With over 250 issues sent (and counting!), the CORE Group-produced FSN Network Newsletter has delivered announcements of new funding opportunities, events, information requests, new resources and other community information into the inboxes of over 2,500 food security implementers over the last several years.

Successes, Challenges, and the Way Forward: Seven Years of Community Building

The TOPS Program is now in its seventh and final year, and is hosting its final Knowledge Sharing Meeting in July 2017. At this capstone event, the wider food security and nutrition community will reflect upon the knowledge gained and shared through TOPS while continuing to collaborate and share knowledge in order to improve development food assistance programming.

Learn more and register.

In its early years, CORE Group worked closely with USAID and the Child Survival Technical Support Project to provide technical support to NGO grantees of the Child Survival and Health Grants Program (CSHGP).

In 2008, USAID combined the Child Survival Technical Support Project and several other initiatives into the flagship Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP).

CORE Group was brought into MCHIP as a sub-grantee to continue support of the CSHGP grantees. Over time, CORE Group’s role in the project evolved as USAID and partners took note of the value of our growing International Community Health Network for learning and dissemination, and CORE Group’s community health expertise.

When MCHIP ended in 2014, CORE Group took on a full partner role in its successor – USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP).

CORE Group is an active member of MCSP’s Community Health and Civil Society Engagement team, working closely with other partners to institutionalize community health as a central component of country health systems, and connect MCSP with the broader global health community through our Global Health Practitioner Conferences, Working Groups, webinars, resources, etc.

Learn more about CORE Group’s history with USAID’s maternal and child health projects:

Below are several of the resources that CORE Group has developed or contributed to through MCHIP and MCSP:

• Considerations for Incorporating Health Equity into Project Designs
• Checklist for Health Equity Programming
• Community-based Tuberculosis Prevention and Care
• Helping Babies Breath Implementation Guide
• Taking Care of a Baby at Home After Birth: What Families Need to Do
• Developing and Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs at Scale: A Reference Guide and Case Studies for Program Managers and Policy Makers
• Civil Society Engagement Strategy: 2016 – 2019
• Literature Review: Civil Society Engagement to Strengthen National Health Systems to End Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths
• Social Accountability Resources and Tools

And here are some CORE Group-produced webinars sharing key MCHIP/MCSP takeaways:

• Why Does Diarrhea Matter? Preventing a million needless deaths per year
• Why Does Diarrhea Matter? Lessons from countries
• Integrated Community Case Management of Childhood Illness Experiences in DRC, Malawi and Senegal
• Planning for Sustainability in Malaria Projects
• Using the TIPs Methodology for IYCF Formative Research
• Introduction and Scale-Up of Chlorhexidine for Umbilical Cord Care
• Women’s Health Matters! Updates from Women Deliver and World Health Assembly
• Pro-Equity RMNCH Programming: Experiences from Bangladesh & Honduras

CORE Group and its members bring a unique perspective on household and community-level issues, community mobilization and demand creation that is complementary to MCHIP’s more national and health-system oriented approach.

– MCHIP Midterm Evaluation