Welcome to the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus (HP+) project website.
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In August 2021, the National Alliance of Indigenous Women's Organizations for Reproductive Health (ALIANMISAR) and the Human Rights Ombudsman's Office (PDH) completed their most recent indicator data collection and health clinic monitoring using the V1000D monitoring tool. Previously, HEP+ supported the development of the tool—which houses indicators related to health services, products, and human resources—and has strengthened the capacity of ALIANMISAR to conduct data analysis and advocacy. The monitoring exercise revealed an undersupply of family planning methods, ferrous sulfate, and rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines as most doctors were busy attending to COVID-19 patients, limiting their availability to provide other essential health services. ALIANMISAR presented department-level findings to relevant health area directorates to make the case for solutions to health service issues. PDH will compile and share findings and recommendations at the national level.
Tanzania has taken some steps to broaden financing for family planning. During a two-day workshop convened last month by HP+, Tanzanian stakeholders discussed options for sustainable financing for family planning services, focusing on segmentation of the family planning consumer market and integration of family planning into the county’s national health insurance scheme. HP+ will model several policy scenarios for financing the scale-up of family planning services to reach the modern contraceptive prevalence rate outlined in the Tanzania National Costed Implementation Plan. The modeling will quantify costs to the government and to women under scenarios in which family planning is offered for free to all users, is incorporated into the health insurance benefits package, and is expanded through commercial products. The findings will be used to advocate for a sustainable option to finance family planning scale-up, with the intent of increasing domestic resource mobilization for family planning, increasing private sector engagement in the delivery of family planning services, and improving access to family planning for the underserved and vulnerable in Tanzania.
A new report from HP+ curates resources to estimate maternal health costs, outcomes, and inequities in low- and middle-income settings. The report, Models and Tools for Maternal Health Decision Making, Planning, and Strategy, summarizes seven tools to enable USAID Missions, governments, and implementing partners to better understand how modeling tools and analytic approaches can answer their policy and research questions regarding target setting, prioritization, budget development, and other program issues. The tools can be used to advocate for increased domestic funding for maternal health, inform policy development, and improve project design and performance—which, in turn, can lead to improved maternal health outcomes. This report, which builds on lessons learned in the 2012 Crosswalk of Family Planning Tools, broadens policymakers’ understanding about how models and tools can guide country-level planning and evaluation efforts aimed at reducing women’s morbidity and mortality during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
An HP+ webinar on May 28—Diagnosing Inequities in Family Planning Programs: A Case Study from Uganda—introduced a new, replicable approach for diagnosing inequities across family planning programming outputs and outcomes at both national and subnational levels. Presenters showcased results from its application to Uganda, focusing on the sub-regions, disadvantaged sub-groups, and family planning components for which inequities are most pervasive, and demonstrated its applicability to other countries. Use of the model is intended to increase the quality of family planning information and services for women.
In Cambodia, the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (CENAT) is using evidence generated by an investment case and recommendations from a joint program review to advocate for greater funding for the tuberculosis (TB) response. HP+ is providing technical support to CENAT to employ the TB TIME model to analyze a variety of scenarios of programmatic impact against potential investment requirements. HP+ found that scaling up active case finding and contact investigation and improving the diagnostic algorithm could result in a 33% reduction in the number of TB incident cases and a 27% reduction in costs borne by individuals from 2019 to 2025.
In late June, HP+ held a three-day training workshop in Mbabane on the oral pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation, planning, monitoring, and evaluation tool (PrEP-it) for 33 Ministry of Health officials, representatives of implementing partners, USAID, and other stakeholders including the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. The pilot workshop, which took place from June 24-27, gave participants hands-on experience in the five modules of the tool: PrEP cascade, capacity, target-setting, costing, and impact. Meanwhile, the development team garnered valuable feedback on the usability and functionality of the tool. The Ministry of Health utilized the segment on target-setting to set their actual national targets for PrEP scale-up based on desired coverage of eSwatini’s PrEP priority populations. As a result of the workshop, the eSwatini government was able to establish and set PrEP targets for the next five years—the first country to do so—by capitalizing on the participation and concurrence of stakeholders at the training. Version 1.0 of PrEP-it is scheduled for release in September 2019.
The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition Advocacy and Accountability working group hosted a webinar, Expanding Access: Estimating the Impact of DMPA-SC Introduction, in December 2017. The webinar, now featured on their website, was led by Erin McGinn, Jim Rosen, and Michelle Weinberger of the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus (HP+) project, provided an overview of the HP+ Microsoft Excel-based model to project the potential contribution of DMPA-SC (also referred to as Sayana Press) to a national family planning program. This model covers both hypothetical public health impact and potential cost savings and returns on investment. Results of recent country applications in Nigeria and Cameroon were shared during the webinar. Read our brief for more information.
HP+ modelling experts provided technical guidance for a new publication by UNICEF called Generation 2030. The report makes a case for investment in children and young people to increase per capita income and improve economic prospects. Scott Moreland and Sayaka Koseki provided guidance to the authors who used DemDiv to run simulations for multiple African countries. According to the population projections in the report, by 2050, the continent will account for 42 percent of all global births and almost 40 per cent of all children under 18. DemDiv continues to be a popular tool being used by a range of players. Scott Moreland is currently reviewing a manuscript on a Mali application for a journal and is preparing a paper for Afrique Contemporaine, a publication of AFD, based on presentations he made last spring in Paris and recently in Cape Town at 2017 International Population Conference.
This World Population Day, the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project produced an online slideshow featuring responses to the question, "How can family planning investments help your country achieve the Sustainable Development Goals?" Olive Mtema, HP+ Malawi, responds: “Results from HP+’s DemDiv model estimate that Malawi’s per capita gross domestic product could increase from US$397 (2014) to US$2,148 by 2054 when family planning is included, turning Malawi into a middle-income country around the year 2040.” Responses from Ms. Olive and others are captured in a photo show, and in a blog by HP+ country directors from Malawi, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
An article published in the Pacific Standard (Malawi’s Secret Weapon Against HIV: Male Circumcision, September 8, 2016) highlights the impact of USAID's Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision modeling study conducted by the Health Policy Project. The study recommends that Malawi focus on recruiting men and boys between the ages of 10 and 34 and to prioritize urban areas. The recommendation led the government of Malawi to shift its VMMC focus with an aim to have 60 percent of males between the ages of 10 and 34 in 14 of Malawi’s 28 districts circumcised by 2025. If Malawi reaches this goal the study calculates a potential total savings of $344 million.
The Government of Malawi adjusted its VMMC programming based on recommendations presented in a study authored by the USAID-supported Health Policy Plus project. The study models the impact and cost of focusing Malawi’s VMMC program by client age and geography. It recommends that Malawi focus on recruiting men and boys between the ages of 10 and 34 and to prioritize urban areas. In response to recommendations, the Government of Malawi is shifting its VMMC focus to aim to have 60 percent of males between the ages of 10 and 34 in 14 of Malawi’s 28 districts circumcised by 2025. If Malawi reaches this goal the study calculates a potential total savings of $344 million. The Health Policy Project’s study and its influence on programming in Malawi was featured in a Pacific Standard article on September 8, 2016 (Malawi’s Secret Weapon Against HIV: Male Circumcision).