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Budget Justification
FY 2001
>> Return to Home Page >> Central Programs >> Global Programs >> Population, Health, & Nutrition
CENTER FOR POPULATION, HEALTH, AND NUTRITION
Stabilizing World Population and Protecting Human Health (G/PHN)
Sustained USAID technical leadership and program support in the population, health and nutrition (PHN) sector for more than three decades have resulted in significant declines in fertility and overall improvements in mortality and health status in developing countries. Despite these achievements, a great deal of work remains. Thirty-three percent of the world's population is between the ages of 10-24. More than one billion young people are on the verge of reproductive age, the majority of them in the developing world. More than a half-million women in developing countries die each year from causes associated with pregnancy and childbearing, and the vast majority of these deaths are preventable. Similarly, an estimated 10 million children under age five die annually from preventable causes such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrheal disease. Six million new infections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurred in 1999. The HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) pandemic continues to spread, destroying families and thwarting social and economic development efforts worldwide.
PHN programs are a core element of USAID's development assistance efforts because they are cost-effective; they lead to a better quality of life for individuals in developing countries; and they clearly and directly address U.S. national interests. For example, early stabilization of population growth will contribute to global economic growth, reduce environmental degradation, and promote political stability. Protecting human health and nutrition also improves economic productivity in developing countries and is necessary for poverty reduction. It also affects public health in the United States. Programs aimed at reducing unhealthy conditions in the developing world help to decrease the incidence of disease and reduce the threat of epidemics, which may directly affect U.S. citizens such as Tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant TB. Thus, these programs help to safeguard the health of Americans, create economically strong trading partners overseas, alleviate poverty and reduce the human suffering associated with disease.
Through Global's Center for Population, Health and Nutrition, central programs continue to support key interventions in the field and contribute directly to USAID goals and objectives.
936-001. Increased use by women and men of voluntary practices that contribute to reduced fertility.
936-001 IR 1.1 New and improved technologies for contraceptive methods and family planning identified, developed, tested, evaluated, and disseminated
U.S. Financing Table for 936-001 IR 1.1 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)936-001 IR 1.2 Improved policy environment and increased global resources for family planning programs
U.S. Financing Table for 936-001 IR 1.2 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)936-001 IR 1.3 Enhanced capacity for national programs (public, private, nongovernmental organizationand community-based institutions) to design, implement, finance, and evaluate suitable family planning programs
U.S. Financing Table for 936-001 IR 1.3 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)936-001 IR 1.4 Increased access to, quality of, cost-effectiveness of, and motivation to use family planning, breastfeeding, and selected reproductive health information and services
U.S. Financing Table for 936-001 IR 1.4 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)By improving maternal and child health and reducing fertility, voluntary family planning programs supported by USAID play a critical role in helping countries buy time to address other development challenges and improve their citizens' standards of living. USAID programs have led to a sharp reduction in fertility, helping to bring the average number of children per family in developing countries down from over six in the 1960s to less than four in 1999. Central programs have provided crucial support for strengthening population policies, increasing private sector participation, developing improved contraceptive methods and family planning service delivery approaches through research, improving contraceptive procurement and logistics, developing information, education and communication materials for the client and general public, and training of service delivery personnel and performance monitoring. USAID's family planning assistance is carried out with emphasis on quality of care and full regard to principles of informed choice.
936-002. Increased use of key maternal health and nutrition interventions.
U.S. Financing Table for 936-002 (Microsoft Excel Document - 22 kb)
Increasingly, governments have moved beyond rhetoric to make key policy and program changes that have the potential to greatly improve maternal health. To meet USAID's objective of contributing to the global reduction of maternal mortality through PHN interventions, central programs have leveraged scarce resources by documenting the feasibility, effectiveness and affordability of key maternal health interventions. These results are shared with USAID's international, governmental and nongovernmental partners so that the lessons learned can be used by others as they make their policy and programming decisions for investments in maternal health. Other USAID programs in economic growth, girl's education, and promotion of gender equity also continue to contribute to the USAID's goal of maternal mortality reduction.
936-003. Increased use of key child health and nutrition interventions.
U.S. Financing Table for 936-003 (Microsoft Excel Document - 22 kb)
USAID continues to play a major role, in partnership with other agencies, in efforts to reduce infant and child mortality and morbidity. The special roles of central programs within the USAID's child survival program include developing and applying cost-effective and sustainable interventions against childhood diseases; engaging in global policy development and in partnerships with other organizations; providing state-of-the-art technical support and assistance to field missions, regional bureaus, and country child survival programs; and deriving and disseminating best practices and innovative approaches from USAID's experience to improve worldwide child survival programming.
USAID provides worldwide leadership in addressing the problem of Vitamin A deficiency through its Enhanced Vitamin A Initiative. Through this collaborative venture with international and private sector partners, USAID promotes interventions to increase Vitamin A intake by at-risk populations and reduce child deaths by at least 20% in targeted countries. USAID is also providing leadership in addressing the worldwide problem of stagnating child immunization rates. In 1999, USAID joined the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the private sector, and others in the creation of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) to enhance national immunization programs and introduce the newer vaccines in developing countries. A major USAID initiative, launched in 1999, will boost immunization programs in 15 USAID-assisted countries where progress is lagging.
936-004. Increased use of improved, effective and sustainable responses to reduce HIV transmission and to mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
U.S. Financing Table for 936-004 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)
USAID's worldwide leadership in addressing the HIV epidemic received a significant boost in FY 2000 with the approval of the interagency Leadership and Investment in Fighting an Epidemic (LIFE) presidential HIV/AIDS initiative and additional Congressional financial support. The LIFE Initiative (which includes three major partners, USAID, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense) will support increased activities which focus on primary prevention, improving community and home-based care and treatment, caring for children affected by AIDS, and capacity and infrastructure development. The additional funds (over and above the LIFE funds) provided by Congress have been incorporated into USAID's ongoing worldwide HIV/AIDS program, including the funding of PHN central programs. Central programs support reduction of HIV/ STI (sexually transmitted infection) transmission through three major categories of activities: interventions to induce lower risk behavior, improving basic clinical STI management and treatment, and increasing access to critical commodities, such as condoms. In 46 countries, USAID programs have reached more than 25 million vulnerable persons with comprehensive HIV prevention education and behavior change communication, and provided over one billion condoms so that people can protect themselves and their partners. USAID also has continued to support basic research and evaluation in order to create new intervention tools, as well as to improve the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation programs. Almost 70 research activities have been developed, including studies on the female condom (Zimbabwe, Brazil), voluntary HIV counseling and testing (Uganda, Tanzania), and community approaches to reducing HIV transmission (India).
936-005. Increased use of effective interventions to reduce the threat of infectious diseases of major public health importance.
U.S. Financing Table for 936-005 (Microsoft Excel Document - 28 kb)
USAID has launched a new initiative to help combat infectious diseases, concentrating on those that have a major impact on mortality. Activities are focusing in four areas: (1) combating anti-microbial resistance; (2) tuberculosis prevention and control; (3) malaria prevention and control; and (4) disease surveillance and response capacity. USAID will achieve results in these areas through the provision of technical assistance for operational programs in developing countries, applied research in strategically critical areas and helping to build indigenous capacity. By focusing on specific areas, and through a concerted effort with the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public and private sector partners, USAID expects to have a significant impact on the control and spread of infectious diseases, and on the long-term sustainability of these efforts. Central programs are providing technical leadership to this new initiative, including development and testing of new and improved approaches and interventions for tuberculosis and malaria control; more appropriate management of antibiotics to reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance; in conjunction with WHO, supporting the development of global strategies for tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance; and more effective approaches for developing surveillance capacity.
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Last Updated on: September 18, 2000 |
