AFRICA: USAID Gives U.S.$731,000 for Health in Eastern, Southern Africa

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has given a grant of $731,000 for strengthening and advocacy for maternal child health in East, Central and Southern African region.

The funds for the one year project that commenced in October will be administered through the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC) secretariat based in Arusha, Tanzania

ECSA-HC Director General Dr Josephine Kibaru-Mbae and the USAID/East Africa's Regional Director, Larry Meserve launched the funding by signing an agreement recently in Nairobi, Kenya.

A statement issued from EACSA-HC headquarters in Arusha said that for more than ten years, the USAID/East Africa has continued to be a key partner of the ECSA Health Community in promoting the health status of the people of the region by jointly addressing various key health thematic areas.

"The collaboration between USAID/East Africa and ECSA is long standing and is greatly appreciated by the Health Community. This collaboration has been crucial in benefiting the health of the people of the region." Saud Dr Kibaru-mbae.

She said that the organization will use this new support to advocate for changes in pre and post natal care country guidelines to help reduce maternal and newborn deaths and to promote implementation of new approaches for increasing sustainable maternal, newborn and child health financing and governance.

The funds will also be used to support the development of regional food fortification standards and to develop tools for monitoring family planning activities.

"By improving maternal and child health care practices at the community level, ECSA-HC and USAID/East Africa hope to see a reduction over time in illness and death rates among women and infants in the region," she noted.

She outlined some of the successes achieved under ECSA-HC and USAID/East Africa collaboration in the past.

These include the protracted advocacy work to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in the region which resulted in the development of a framework for integrating gender based violence prevention into national health programs and the adoption of an implementation framework for gender based violence prevention and control by ten national ministers.

She said that a model national policy is also being developed for country-level use.

There has also been increased awareness on the devastating effects of post partum hemorrhage in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia that has resulted in a strategy to reduce post partum hemorrhage at community level that is being promoted in the region.

She said that in addition eight ECSA member countries have developed new food fortification programs while public-private initiatives are increasing the use of fortified foods in all ECSA countries.