Through a new five-year, $69 million award from the US Agency for International Development, IntraHealth International and its partners will work to improve health for women and children in Senegal by strengthening health services and making them accessible to more people.

The new IntraHealth-led project—called Integrated Service Delivery and Healthy Behaviors (ISD-HB)—will help Senegal achieve the vision it outlines in its Plan Senegal Emergent: “a Senegal where all individuals, all households, and all communities enjoy universal access to promotional, preventive, curative health services of quality, without any form of exclusion.”

Senegal has made great strides in improving health and well-being among its people—the use of modern contraception is up; infant, child, and maternal mortality are down; and essential health commodities are becoming more widely available. During West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, the country successfully mobilized its health system to prevent widespread cases within its borders. And the government of Senegal has shown its commitment to health-sector accountability through strong health policies and plans.

But challenges persist. High-impact practices to reduce maternal and newborn mortality have not yet been scaled up and institutionalized nationally. In some regions, health facilities continue to run out of essential medications and commodities. And gender inequities continue to threaten the potential of women and girls.

ISD-HB will address these issues by:

• Increasing access to and use of a wide range of high-quality services and products, including modern contraception, in the country’s public-sector health facilities and in communities.
• Reaching out to key populations in targeted areas to provide HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, and high-quality care in alignment with the UNAIDS global 90-90-90 goals.
• Encouraging respectful client care, gender-sensitivity, and youth-friendliness in health care by incorporating these issues into health worker trainings.
• Promoting behavior change, including by providing the knowledge and resources people need to make informed, healthful decisions.
• Bringing services closer to clients by investing in community health, including by expanding the network of community health workers and facilities and integrating community health into the overall health system.

“Senegal is quickly becoming a model for other countries in our region by investing in its health system and health workers as the most effective way to meet our health and development goals,” says Babacar Gueye, chief of party and country director for IntraHealth in Senegal. “The US government’s continued investment in our country will help us move even closer to universal access to care, and contribute to a healthier population and social and economic development.”

The new ISD-HB project builds on achievements from past USAID programming, including the Health Services Improvement project and the Senegal Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health/Family Planning/Malaria project, both led by IntraHealth.

IntraHealth’s partners on this project include the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, ChildFund International, Marie Stopes International Sénégal, Helen Keller International, Réseau Siggil Jigéen, Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA, and ideas42.