From Polio to Covid-19: How Core Group Partners Project Leveraged Community for Pandemic Response in India

Raj Kumar Verma, Population Council, India
Avishek Hazra, PopulationCouncil Consulting

For over two decades, the CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP) has been pivotal in addressing public health challenges in India, focusing on polio eradication and recently COVID-19 response. To tackle polio, CGPP adopted a multi-pronged, community-based approach to improve vaccination uptake. This involved identifying, training, and engaging community cadres and influencers to counter misinformation and misconceptions through behavioral interventions. This study documents CGPP’s legacy and key strategies in achieving and maintaining India’s polio-free status, based on a retrospective outcome and process evaluation. We employed Complexity-Aware Monitoring approaches such as outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, and most significant change to document CGPP’s contributions. The study highlights how CGPP’s innovations and adaptations have shaped the polio eradication program, strengthened routine immunization infrastructure, and enhanced community mobilization to address inequities in demand and services. A cross-sectional, mixed-methods approach was used, incorporating systematic document review, secondary data analysis, and qualitative data collection with key stakeholders. Findings indicate that a coordinated ecosystem of diverse partners, under government leadership, was crucial in addressing public health emergencies like polio and COVID-19. Grassroots organizations and community involvement ensured contextual delivery and ownership, improving coverage and impact. Flexibility, supportive leadership, and multi-stakeholder involvement fostered innovative local solutions and sustained strategies

Keywords: Population, Shocks and Pandemics

See extended abstract.