Goal:

Increase the availability of evidence for policy advocacy and public health programming.

Life of Program:

January 2015 – January 2020

Total USAID Funding:

U.S. $13.5 million

Geographic Focus:

West Africa region (primarily Burkina Faso, Côte D’Ivoire, Niger, Togo, Mauritania, Cameroon)

Implementing Partner:

International Business & Technical Consultants Inc.

Program Description:

This project promotes evidence-based decision making, supports a regional effort to expand use of family planning services, and increases the accessibility of high quality HIV services for most-at-risk populations in order to decrease the burden of disease.  

Program Objectives:

• Address critical gaps in research and evidence for USAID’s family planning and HIV/AIDS activities in West Africa by increasing the availability of evidence on health interventions to improve resource allocation, policy advocacy and program planning.
• Increase the technical and management capacity of indigenous civil society organizations, institutions, and networks to foster regional and local production of high quality evaluations and operations research.
• Disseminate the evaluations and operations research findings to key stakeholders using innovative and user-friendly materials.

Expected Results:

• Local and regional institutions will be better able to produce high quality evaluations and operations research, and to translate the findings into user-friendly, tech savvy materials.
• Additional evidence on health programming will be available, published, and used.
• Policy development and the allocation of resources in West Africa will be improved.
• Best and promising practices in health will be documented.