What is meant by sustainability?
Community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) is at the heart of APOC’s strategy to eliminate onchocerciasis. In this context ‘sustainability’ means the likelihood that a CDTI project will continue to function effectively after APOC support comes to an end in 2015.
APOC is working to ensure that its onchocerciasis control activities will be progressively integrated into national health systems, and by 2015, to be implemented under the full financial and administrative responsibility of the countries concerned.
APOC considers CDTI activities to be sustainable when they:
- continue to function effectively for the foreseeable future
- have high treatment coverage
- are integrated into the available health care services
- have strong community ownership
- use resources mobilized by the community and the government.
Sustainability of APOC’s activities and achievements implies that in most CDTI areas, treatment will reach at least 65% of the population at risk. It also implies that the CDTI process will become an integral part of the national or local health care services of all the endemic countries, and will continue to function through a strong sense of community and national government ownership.