Child Survival and Health Grants Program

Background

Photo of two children in Zambia.
USAID/Nazo Kureshy

Through the Child Survival and Health Grants Program (CSHGP), USAID contributes to accelerating reductions in maternal, newborn, and child mortality at the national and global levels in priority countries.

The CSHGP strategic partnership model engages and builds the capacity of civil society with host country governments and the private sector – promoting healthy behaviors, improving quality and equitable access to services, and informing national policies and strategies.

Direct cooperative agreements support the work of international non-governmental organizations (iNGOs) and their local partners. These programs generate new knowledge to address major barriers to improving and scaling up the delivery and use of integrated packages of low-cost, high-impact interventions to improve the health of women, children, and communities. As of April 2013, the current portfolio consists of approximately 32 projects in 24 countries.

Technical assistance provided to grantees by the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) Private Voluntary Organization/Non-governmental Organization Support Team assures programmatic rigor and fosters communities of practice, supported through the CORE Group, to promote leadership and collaboration for learning and action.

Objectives

CSHGP is housed in the Bureau for Global Health’s Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition (HIDN). The CSHGP is an important program in the Bureau for Global Health and HIDN for leveraging the strengths of the iNGO community to contribute to USAID leadership in innovative, community-oriented approaches that are responsive to the needs of major strategic initiatives (i.e. Global Health Initiative and Feed the Future) and contribute to the goal of ending preventable child and maternal deaths.

Through the CSHGP, USAID supports new partnerships among non-governmental organizations, academia, and ministries of health to generate evidence about how to solve critical challenges in the implementation and scale-up of high-impact maternal, newborn, and child health interventions. Solutions are tailored to local contexts, with relevance to global implementation challenges, such as how best to integrate services within and across sectors; improve the continuum of care to maximize access and lower costs; ensure equity in access and use of services; and build capacity and strengthen systems for accountability to communities.

Specific examples of global questions to be answered include:

How can community health workers (CHWs) more effectively reach households with timely information, case management, and referral?
What are effective models for partnerships between health care providers and community agents to improve the continuum of care and increase demand for services through culturally appropriate and respectful care?
How can data collected by communities be used as a communication and planning tool to improve the quality of care?
How can mobile health (mHealth) technology improve the skills of CHWs, provide timely health information reminders, and promote use of data for decision-making?

The influence and lessons of the first two cohorts of awards that have recently ended are being shared in operations research briefs. The first four briefs are available at the links below, for projects implemented by World Vision in Afghanistan, Helen Keller International in Nepal, Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua, and Concern Worldwide in Burundi.

CSHGP grantees implement integrated packages of high-impact interventions in the following technical areas: nutrition, immunization, control of diarrheal disease, pneumonia case management, prevention and control of malaria, maternal and newborn care, family planning, and HIV and AIDS. 

Learn more about final project evaluations: Pearls of Learning from Eight Final Evaluations in 2013.

Partnerships

Through CSHGP, USAID partners with the following organizations:


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