CORE Documentation Initiative

Documenting innovative, community-based field experiences enables CORE NGOs to share successes and lessons with donors, partners and other NGOs working in similar settings. In 2004, the CORE Group began commissioning case studies and field stories on community-based programs to achieve the following objectives:

1. Document maternal and child health improvements by the NGO community, working in partnership with other NGOs and collaborators. (Improvements may be reported as: improved health outcomes, increased coverage of population by intervention, increased equity in access to and use of services, improved behaviors, increased sustainability, or improved quality of services or capacity.)

2. Identify and describe the key approaches, actions, partnerships, and/or tools that made the health improvements possible in a way that other implementing agencies/NGOs can understand and/or replicate, and to analyze the process used.

CORE case studies take a straightforward approach to documenting NGO innovations, describing project context, interventions/activities, methods and approaches, monitoring and evaluation techniques, results reported, and success factors/lessons learned. Case studies are written by one or more CORE members, who first submit an abstract to CORE describing a successful or innovative health intervention. Application for case study funding is competitive, and abstracts must align with one of CORE’s eight Working Group focus areas.

CORE stories from the field take a more journalistic approach, building on 2- to 3-week case writing and qualitative methods workshops conducted with NGO program staff in country. Workshop participants travel to remote communities to observe and interview local residents, community health workers, government officials, health center personnel and others about barriers and solutions to a specific health problem. Participants take field notes and translate them into a “field story” that conveys community voices and perspectives.

CORE Case Studies

Family Planning

Uganda Family Planning Programs: Lessons From the Field
Partnering with Communities and District Health Teams
Minnesota International Health Volunteers/ Adventist Development and Relief Agency International

HIV/AIDS

Integrating TB and HIV Care in Mozambique: Lessons from an HIV Clinic in Beira
Health Alliance International

Malaria

Partnerships in Action: An Integrated Approach to Combining a Measles Campaign with a Bed Net, Vitamin A and Mebendazole Campaign in Zambia
American Red Cross

Improving Malaria Case Management in Ugandan Communities: Lessons From the Field
Minnesota International Health Volunteers

Community-Based Solutions for Effective Malaria Control: Lessons from Mozambique
World Relief

Tuberculosis

Integrating TB and HIV Care in Mozambique: Lessons from an HIV Clinic in Beira
Health Alliance International

Implementation of a National Tuberculosis Control Program in Minority Communities: Accomplishments and Challenges from Kosovo
Doctors of the World

Tuberculosis Control in Karaganda Prison Through DOTS: Lessons from Kazakhstan
Project HOPE

Using Incentives To Improve Tuberculosis Treatment Results: Lessons from Tajikistan
Project HOPE

CORE Stories from the Field

Malaria

Casting A Wide Net: How NGOs Promote Insecticide-Treated Bed Nets (Tanzania)

Bringing Down Mosquito Fever: How NGOs Promote Home-Based Treatment of Malarial Fever in Uganda

Neonatal Health

Como Sera, Pues? The NGO Contribution to Neonatal Health in Bolivia

Como Sera, Pues? La Contribucion de las ONGs a la Salud Neonatal en Bolivia

Polio

Drop by Drop: The NGO Contribution to the Polio Eradication Initiative in Angola