Program Data Sheet
263-020

USAID MISSION: Egypt
PROGRAM TITLE: Healthier, Planned Families (Pillar: Global Health)
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE AND NUMBER: Healthier, Planned Families, 263-020
STATUS: Continuing
PLANNED FY 2002 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $46,490,000 ESF
UNOBLIGATED PRIOR YEAR FUNDS AND FUNDING SOURCE: $1,800,000 ESF
PROPOSED FY 2003 OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: $38,900,000 ESF
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 2002      ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2009

Summary: Major categories of assistance under the SO include—

• population management/family planning, including fertility reduction and enhanced reproductive health;
• institutionalized, and sustained maternal and child health services;
• infectious disease surveillance and response; and
• health-policy reform.

Inputs, Outputs, and Activities: FY 2002 Program: Through this portfolio, USAID provides technical assistance, commodities, training, and upgrades of family planning and reproductive health services offered at public and NGO facilities. This will result in upgraded reproductive health services in over 4,200 public and 200 NGO clinics. The Communications for Healthy Living (CHL) activity supports communication campaigns focuses on promoting seat belt use and safe birthing practices and will improve the flow of information to communities and clinics served by health workers. Population funds in CHL will contribute to public education efforts aimed at groups (especially young couples) with little knowledge of reproductive health. The Healthy Mother/Healthy Child Project provides technical assistance, commodities, local support, and training to improve maternal and child health services in 12 health districts of Upper Egypt. Support to community outreach, education and local NGOs will strengthen public health and public education among disadvantaged communities, help to maintain high immunization coverage rates, and eradicate the polio virus.

The Health Workforce Development activity provides technical assistance to re-engineer medical and nursing education in reproductive and neonatal care, and community health partnerships will be initiated between selected Egyptian medical universities and counterparts in the United States. In-country and offshore training will be provided to medical and nursing staff members. The Health Policy and Information Project supports policy reform objectives in the health sector. Technical assistance and local organizational support will refine quality assurance, financial payment, and allocation systems needed to switch from a state-monopoly to a managed-care model for health services. The Infectious Disease Surveillance and Response project provides local cost support, laboratory and computer equipment, and technical assistance to strengthen disease surveillance capacity in 83 (of 265) districts, and carries out field research on infectious diseases. The Health Policy Cash Transfer program, notified under the Development Support Program, will support reform in the health sector. The policy changes focus on reforming the public insurance system, making public financing of healthcare more efficient and improving quality of providers and facilities.

Planned FY 2003 Program: Grants under this program will fund 15 or more local NGOs that operate over 100 reproductive health clinics. Technical assistance, training, and local support will continue to improve technical and management systems focused on achieving client-responsive, quality services. CHL will program health funds to run media campaigns that target, among others, oral rehydration therapy use and unsafe birthing practices. Population funds will disseminate messages on women’s health and family planning and strengthen NGOs in health advocacy.

The Healthy Mother/Healthy Child project will extend its maternal and neo-natal care activities to additional districts. It will extend its newborn and safe childbirth care to 15 more districts, and child healthcare in 30 more districts. Training of clinicians and district health officers will increase capacity to manage public funds and mobilize community participation. Through Health Workforce Development medical and nursing schools will receive audio-visual, information technology, and related education materials to complement the technical assistance and training provided to improve medical and nursing education. The Health Policy and Information project will develop the new payment and management systems required extending the managed care mode of family healthcare through technical assistance, training, and local support. It will also help to develop and promote policy reforms that lead to institutionalized quality assurance and a strengthened private-sector role. The Infectious Disease Surveillance and Response Program will further extend a package of training, technical assistance, and laboratory upgrades to surveillance capacity in 68 districts, enhance research capacity, and increase awareness among health providers and the public of ways to prevent communicable disease. The Health Policy Cash Transfer program will continue to pursue policy reform in support of a more efficient, cost-effective, and accountable health system.

Performance and Results: Building upon Egypt’s strong health infrastructure, the activities of "Healthier Planned Families" will work to make the health system more responsive to client needs, more efficient, and sustainable. By the end of USAID's ten-year strategy, Egyptians will have more choice in regard to contraceptive method and source of care, quality will be monitored and measured according to established standards, and the poor and vulnerable will have better access to basic healthcare. These changes will lead to better performance of the health system, leading to lower infant, child, and maternal mortality (and morbidity) and reduced fertility levels. Also expected are increasing resistance to traditional practices, such as female genital cutting and early marriage. Infant mortality is expected to decline from 63 in 1995 to 38 by 2009, and total fertility rates from the baseline level of 3.6 to 3.0 by the end of USAID’s assistance in 2009.

Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: Abt Associates and Tulane University; John Snow International; Center for Population and Development Activities (CEDPA); Profamilia/Columbia and Pathfinder International; Naval Medical Research Unit III (Cairo) (NAMRU-III); Department of Health and Human Services and others to be determined.

US Financing in Thousands of Dollars