As donor funding for family planning and reproductive health continues to dwindle, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) urgently need the skills to define their financial needs and pursue strategies to meet them. Between 2004 and 2006, FRONTIERS conducted a series of financial capacity-building workshops in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In an effort to enhance the sustainability of the training, the project supported both training and subsequent research: training to develop NGOs’ skills in economic research, and support for OR projects to help the NGOs use their new skills in an economic research study. A total of 35 trainees from 12 NGOs representing eight countries attended workshops on financial sustainability in Accra, Ghana; La Paz, Bolivia; and Jaipur, India.

Following the workshops, NGOs developed proposals for OR studies focused on increasing their financial sustainability. Of the 12 proposals submitted—covering such topics as costing, pricing, marketing, and break-even analysis—ten received FRONTIERS funding, and three were funded separately. The NGOs completed and submitted reports for all of the proposed projects; thus, the combined approach was successful in the short term. However, the long-term sustainability of this approach would need to be assessed in two or three years—beyond the scope of FRONTIERS—or would depend on the willingness of other organizations to support this type of financial training and research.

Interregional

March 2004–December 2006

Population Council researcher

James R. Foreit

John Bratt (FRONTIERS/FHI)

Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG)

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources
Council researchers' names appear in boldface type.