Welcome to the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus (HP+) project website.
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Mali has joined the Global Financing Facility (GFF), giving the country potential access to development funding from the World Bank and other donors worldwide, and helping to improve financing efficiencies for health. The country took the final step in unlocking access to GFF funding at a December workshop, when it completed its investment case for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH). At the same time, Mali finished development of a monitoring framework for its Health and Social Development Plan, which is tied to the RMNCAH investment case. Finalization of these key strategic documents is essential for the social health sectors and Mali’s intention to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The country’s GFF investment case seeks an improvement in health outcomes, including a reduction in maternal mortality from 325 to 146 per 100,000 births by 2023 and a reduction of the proportion of women 15-49 years who have experienced gender-based violence from 10.8 percent in 2018 to 2 percent in 2023. HP+ organized the December workshop with the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to finalize the document and facilitated remote participation of some partners.
HP+ applied the Family Planning-Sustainable Development Goals (FP-SDGs) Model with stakeholders in Tanzania to project how family planning investments can accelerate progress toward the SDGs. HP+ worked alongside local stakeholders to strengthen their capacity to generate projections from the model and interpret results. Advocates have used results to make the case to Parliamentarians and others to prioritize and expand family planning in support of broader development goals. Model results estimate that increasing family planning investments in Tanzania could, by 2030, reduce maternal mortality by 47% and increase the proportion of the population using safe drinking water by 20%, among others.
After many months of consultation with leading corporations and NGOs on boosting women’s health and empowerment in the workplace, the United Nations Foundation publicly released the Framework for Corporate Action on Workplace Women’s Health and Empowerment at a UN General Assembly side event on September 23. The framework, which offers a roadmap for gender-responsive policies, practices, and programs with health as the centerpiece of women’s empowerment, was developed by Meridian International—a non-profit, public diplomacy organization supported by HP+. In addition to providing concrete action steps for corporations and global supply chains to support these initiatives, the framework features publicly available tools and resources that can help companies to implement workplace interventions. At a consultation workshop during the Women Deliver conference in June, Meridian’s David Wofford presented the framework’s policy and systems change component that included information drawn from the HP+ Family Planning-Sustainable Development Goals (FP-SDGs) model. The final framework addresses workplace women’s health, gender-based violence, and professional advancement, with a priority placed on expanding access to services.
Nigeria launched the country’s fourth National RAPID on July 6, emphasizing the nation’s commitment to implementing policies to address future population growth and sustainable development. Nigeria’s total fertility rate is 5.5 percent. The RAPID was launched at a summit – "Investing in Youth to Reap the Demographic Dividend in Nigeria" – where Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma said, "Young people and not oil are the most valuable resource we have as a nation." The RAPID model, an evidence-based advocacy tool the projects the impact of high fertility across sectors, was developed in collaboration with the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project. Read local press coverage
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.
Pakistani ministers of education, planning and development, and food security drew content from the recently published paper by the USAID-funded Health Policy Plus project called 17 Reasons to Invest in Family Planning in Pakistan: Accelerating Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals to inform their remarks at a recent population research conference. The conference – Investing in Family Planning for SDGs 1 to 6 – included a special ministerial session on family planning and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event was hosted by the Population Association of Pakistan on November 25-26, 2016.