Increasing the technical, institutional, and financial sustainability of CRS
SHOPS Plus is strengthening Nepal CRS Company (CRS) technical, institutional, and financial capacity to help ensure they remain a competitive contributor to national health outcomes.
Financial capacity building: SHOPS Plus is supporting CRS as it restructures to address its dual priorities of continuing with commercial sales activities while retaining the tax-exempt status required to implement donor-funded project activities. This transition is critical to ensuring the sustainability of CRS after the GGMS project ends. With SHOPS Plus support, CRS has decided to transition to a two-level structure consisting of a tax-compliant for-profit unit conducting sales and distribution of health products and a tax-exempt, not-for-profit unit conducting charitable activities. SHOPS Plus is actively working with CRS to complete legal documents for the formation, registration, and functioning of its new for-profit subsidiary and develop comprehensive transition plans for both units.
Technical capacity building: SHOPS Plus works closely with CRS to generate and use evidence that improves logistics efficiencies, addresses critical supply gaps and provider quality issues, and informs social marketing plans and activities. SHOPS Plus has led several research activities to more effectively and efficiently target CRS's intervention. For example, SHOPS Plus conducted knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) baseline and endline surveys in the GGMS and RAI districts to assess KAP in key health areas. The project used the baseline findings to help CRS more effectively implement the second phase of RAI and inform program management and product messaging in GGMS areas, and is now using endline findings to measure CRS’s progress and identify remaining areas of improvement. The project engages CRS throughout the research process to build CRS’s capacity in generating evidence for effective decision making. In addition, SHOPS Plus has worked with CRS and local software firms to design a web-based application that streamlines data collection during supportive supervision visits to the Sangini network of private providers. This facilitates data analysis to help CRS identify provider performance gaps and tailor training and supervision activities to meet provider needs.
Institutional capacity building: SHOPS Plus designed and implements the Social Marketing Organization Development Assessment Tool to routinely evaluate, strengthen, and monitor CRS’s capacities, identify strengths and weaknesses, jointly identify and design evidence-based interventions for optimal impact, and monitor progress over time. Prioritized interventions aim at improving CRS’s business development, communications, human resources, and monitoring and evaluation capabilities. The project recently modified the SMODAT Tool to increase standards of performance and account for CRS’s transition to a new two-level structure. CRS and SHOPS Plus will implement the revised SMODAT Tool to identify areas for institutional development and build CRS’s capacity to continue implementing SMODAT assessments after SHOPS Plus ends.
Learn more about pharmaceutical partnerships and social marketing, provider quality, family planning, and child health.