Published in Front Lines
When the Point Four Program was launched by US President Harry Truman in 1949, helping the world's poorest people help themselves became the primary aim of US development assistance. While much of the US Agency for International Development's (USAID) economic development work has concentrated on policy reforms, privatization and other measures aime...
Published in Front Lines
In Tanzania, the international microfinance network FINCA set up shop and began training its first Village Banking Groups in June 1998, disbursing its first loans in July with a grant from the US Agency for International Development. Within 2 months, the program reached 757 low-income women and distributed loans worth US$57,183 using the group supp...
Published in Front Lines
In Guinea, jingles promoting Prudence condoms are heard on radio and television in 4 different national languages 5 times a day. This has produced an attitudinal change through an intense national media campaign orchestrated by the USAID-financed Social Marketing of Contraceptives Project carried out by Population Services International (PSI), whic...
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The USAID-CARE Bolivia Child Survival and Rural Sanitation Project brought water to Tauca, a community on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Water is used for washing hands and vegetables which leads to better hygiene and nutrition and is crucial in view of the current cholera epidemic in South America. Farmers often start small irrigation projects for v...
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In 1989, USAID awarded the Philippines a 5-year, US $50 million Child Survival Program targeting improvement in immunization coverage of children, prenatal care coverage for pregnant women, and contraceptive prevalence. Upon successful completion of performance benchmarks at the end of each year, USAID released monies to fund child survival activit...
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Indonesia's success in reaching World Health Organization (WHO) universal immunization coverage standards is described as the result of a strong national program with timely, targeted donor support. USAID/Indonesia's Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) and other USAID bilateral cooperation helped the government of Indonesia in its goal to immun...
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USAID Administrator, Ronald Roskins, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Louis Sullivan, were given the task by President Bush of finding out what can be done to advance child survival in Africa and throughout the world. Roskins and Sullivan, joined by 7 officials from their organizations, visited Africa in early 1991. This article ...
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The Mexican Foundation for Family Planning (MEXFAM) worked to solve the unemployment problems of physicians and to increase health services to underserved rural areas. In Mexico, 75% of practicing physicians were located in 16 urban areas. Mexico had a large population of 83 million, of whom many in rural areas have been deprived of family planning...
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Zimbabwe's Commercial and Industrial Medical Aid Society (CIMAS)'s 1989 landmark decision to add family planning to its insurance benefits package triggered a shift from a subsidized public sector approach to family planning to significant private sector involvement. CIMAS, Zimbabwe's largest private insurance company, has 155,000 members. Followin...
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The Zambian Control of Diarrheal Diseases (CDD) Program sought the assistance of 2 popular theater groups to develop a play on diarrhea including messages on using oral rehydration therapy (ORT), breast feeding, continued feeding, and using fluids. This was a more appropriate channel for promoting ORT because only 30% of the population had access t...
