Measuring and Improving Results (continued)

Sustaining your Primary Healthcare Center will require a combination of on-going monitoring and evaluation, but also a clear grasp of emerging community health issues and an eye toward the future.

• “Although this program works well now, will it continue to best serve the population?”
• “What are new or emerging healthcare issues in the community, and how can our Primary Healthcare Center begin to address them?”
• “What factors of support and resistance to sustainability have been identified as relevant and are likely to play a role in the future?”
• “What can be done to sustain the Primary Healthcare Center until the evolving political/demographic/epidemiological situation has improved or changed?”

AIHA Summary of Primary Healthcare Center Partners and Sustainability

In assessing whether or not a Primary Healthcare Center would be able to sustain their operations after the official partnership programs with their US counterparts had ended, AIHA evaluators recognized the following components of a successful, sustainable Primary Healthcare Center. Keep these concepts in mind for your own center:

• The knowledge of best-practice strategies was internalized by the partners. Partnerships' achievements in the knowledge-building area was not based on what was done for the partners, but what was done by them.
• Organizational capacity to address problems and manage innovation was significantly strengthened.
• Educated by the partnerships, the communities are now much more aware of the health and social problems addressed by the partnerships and generate steady demand for their sustainable solution.
• Supply of international funds for addressing the problem has significantly increased, as partners have developed into savvy marketers of their achievement and competitive grant applicants.

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