Welcome to the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus (HP+) project website.
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In late August 2021, HP+ and partners organized a meeting in Malawi focused on youth, education, gender, and health, which provided a platform for stakeholders—including youth themselves—to strategize on positive youth development, share evidence-based interventions, and propose policy and programmatic recommendations. Youth participants used the meeting as an opportunity to effectively engage officials from various ministries working on youth issues. They suggested innovative and youth-tailored solutions that covered topics such as mental health, sexual and reproductive health and rights, accountability platforms, capacity strengthening, and collaboration among youth and government ministries. In addition, youth participants advocated for greater representation in each sector and ministry, a greater focus on cyberbullying, and stronger mechanisms to curb and report on sexual and gender-based violence. These recommendations will inform the follow-on youth-friendly health services strategy, updating the 2015–2020 strategy.
Guatemala and Malawi recently launched two university courses on policy modeling, data utilization, and demography and development created with HP+ support. Public Health and Demography, Reproductive Health and Nutrition at the School of Medicine of the Universidad San Carlos de Guatemala is an initiative of the Technical and Academic Commission led by USAC faculty in the School of Medicine, of which HEP+ has been a part since February 2021. HEP+ led the course's development by coordinating workshops and course approval and developed the course documentation and modules. Classes include Introduction to Public Health, Public Policy Framework, Demography and Development, and Reproductive Health and Development. In Malawi, HP+ developed the Policy Modeling curriculum at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College alongside professors in the college’s Department of Population Studies, contributing models for policy planning such as Spectrum, DemDiv, and ImpactNow. The course, which was developed in 2019 and approved in 2021, will be mandatory for fourth-year demography students. In both courses, students will gain knowledge and skills in analyzing and communicating complex data for decision making, set policy goals, and use model results for policy analysis, implementation, and planning. These activities will prepare students to be effective public health policy influencers and practitioners.
Last month, more than 2,300 public and private sector health professionals in Guatemala participated in five hours of live training on COVID-19. The two sessions—broadcast on YouTube—featured presentations from top local experts and interactive questions from viewers. Since airing, more than 18,000 additional views have been recorded. In coordination with key health sector stakeholders, HEP+ facilitated and moderated the sessions and solicited participant input for future trainings. With a solid foundation of knowledge on the basics of COVID-19, health professionals nationwide will be able to improve practices in service delivery to support Guatemala’s pandemic response.
Guatemala’s government leadership extolled the country’s progress and ongoing commitment to decentralization at the first-ever congressional session on decentralization and at a related meeting held days apart in early October. With acknowledgement of the USAID-funded Health and Education Policy Plus (HEP+) for its support of the government’s efforts, outgoing President Jimmy Morales and incoming political leaders both reiterated their commitment to decentralization of primary health care and education to the municipal level and the expected positive impact on health, education, and economic development of Guatemalans at all levels of society. Guatemala’s commitment to decentralizing primary health service delivery and education is enshrined in legal and regulatory statutes but implementation had lagged for several years. The congressional gathering comes at a time of political transition and was remarkable for the commitment to continue the effort by both outgoing and incoming leaders. The progress in implementing the country’s decentralization policy is at a pivotal time and comes after many years of effort by USAID and HEP+ to develop guidelines for implementation; support for civil society networks that demand accountability and monitor implementation; and for the development of an information system that supports decentralization. The SIPRODES information system, developed with support from HEP+, is an important data visualization tool that tracks the capacity and readiness of each municipality to take on newly devolved responsibilities; identifies and highlights areas for capacity development within the municipality; and establishes a communication path from the municipalities to the central government to signal readiness and evaluate how the municipalities are doing.
The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) in Guatemala announced a commitment to expand its strategic alliance with ALIANMISAR, a local civil society organization, to assume the responsibility of monitoring the educational quality in the five education departments prioritized USAID and expand the program to schools in all 22 departments of the country starting on February 1, 2019. This commitment is a direct result of HP+’s efforts to build capacity within civil society networks and track progress on the program’s influence on the educational system; in the years since the program’s monitoring began in 2013, these networks have leveraged over US$3.8 million to improve 138 schools. Based on these positive responses to these results, the PDH and ALIANMISAR designed six questionnaires aimed at students, parents, teachers, and directors to collect demographic and institution-specific data that will provide a baseline for future educational interventions in the region. Additionally, the PDH has developed an online app to track and review the answers provided in these questionnaires, highlighting the visibility and accessibility of the data. The strategic alliance marks an important milestone for HP+’s efforts to achieve sustainable results that will have lasting effects in Guatemala as the PDH will accompany civil society networks to advocate for positive changes in the quality of educational services and will actively monitor future cases of human rights violations reported by students and educators.
In recent weeks, Guatemala’s Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) officially established the National Workforce Training System (SINAFOL) for school and extracurricular education systems. SINAFOL—a system that has been supported by HEP+ for over a year—is the structure that manages and coordinates the government, private sector, and social agents to define and implement policies and strategies that guide education and technical occupational training in the country. It incorporates standardization processes, training, evaluation and certification of labor skills, entrepreneurship, and citizenship in a permanent learning context. In addition to establishing the system in early November by ministerial degree, on January 3, MINEDUC published two additional decrees to (1) support the creation of six new careers in order to expand opportunities for young people in the education system, and (2) create a system of skill certification. HEP+ will continue to support the operation of SINAFOL and the skill certification system in coming months. Read the press coverage.
An event on July 10 co-hosted by the PACE Project and held the Wilson Center, A More Prosperous World: The Role of Population Dynamics and Family Planning for Economic Growth, Education, and Health featured Health Policy Plus Deputy Director for Family Planning and Reproductive Health, Jay Gribble. Jay joined a panel of experts who discussed how population dynamics drive development and how access to family planning services enables countries to meet their education, employment, and public health goals. The event also featured Peter McPherson, former USAID Administrator and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, who is now President of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
Representatives from Guatemala’s Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) launched EscuelAPP, a new mobile application designed to enhance civil society’s role in holding the national government accountable for high-quality education. The application was developed by the USAID-funded Health and Education Policy Plus (HEP+) and is linked to a database created and maintained by HEP+ and its predecessor policy projects. EscuelAPP is available to the general public and to local and national MINEDUC staff. It offers easy, real-time access to school-level information on teachers, school performance, and delivery of benefits. Ministry staff and civil society use the app to monitor performance and change and make comparisons across schools and communities.
To download the app, visit GooglePlay or iTunes.