USAID Selects Abt Associates to Rebuild Health System in Post-Conflict Iraq

Abt Associates will oversee an extensive team of partners specialized in all aspects of health services, including emergency relief services and health care delivery; health systems assessment, process improvement, and reengineering; procurement and logistics; health planning and economics; disease surveillance; and data collection and information systems. 

Abt Associates' efforts will focus on the six essential components of the health system: service delivery, health surveillance, health services management, the health workforce, health delivery infrastructure, and assessing the demand for health services.  The project will be implemented in two phases.  The first phase — immediate post-conflict — involves rapid assessment, stabilization and basic reconstruction in order to assure service delivery to vulnerable groups.  The second phase — pre-development — involves capacity strengthening of Iraqi health system providers in order to re-establish Iraqi management of the health system and ensure sustainability.

Abt Associates' work in health spans a wide range of competencies and experience, including clinical trials, health financing, health policy, health systems management, health risk assessment modeling, HIV/AIDS, immunization, nutrition, public health, mental health and reproductive health.  Abt Associates is a leading provider of health-related research, evaluation, planning, implementation, technical assistance, and training to governments, funding organizations, foundations, nonprofit institutions, and business and industry.

Since 1985, when it began its International Health practice, Abt Associates and its partners have worked on projects funded by the USAID in such countries as Armenia, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Niger, and Zambia.

Abt Associates has extensive experience managing large, complex and challenging projects involving applied research, data analysis, policy formulation, training, and on-the-ground program design and implementation.

Some current international health projects of the Company include:

• Primary Health Care Initiatives (PHCI) — Abt Associates is the prime contractor for the Primary Health Care Initiatives (PHCI) project, a five-year, $40-million bilateral undertaking to help the Jordan Ministry of Health (MOH) improve primary and reproductive health services and reconstruct health clinics.  Funded by the USAID, PHCI began in 1999 and is being implemented throughout Jordan.
  
• Partners for Health Reformplus (PHRplus) — USAID's five-year (2000-2005) global project in health policy and health systems strengthening provides technical assistance as well as research, performance monitoring, results health tracking, training, capacity development, and strategic documentation.
  
• The ZdravPlus - a five-year (2000-2005) regional project funded by USAID — helps governments of Central Asia improve the financial sustainability, efficiency, and quality of their healthcare systems while preserving equitable access. ZdravPlus provides technical assistance to improve the efficiency of resource use and healthcare quality, redefine patient rights and responsibilities, and create a favorable legal and policy framework for health reform.
  
• Abt Associates Health Policy Training Institute (AAHPTI) — Offers technical and policy leaders from countries around the world a practical, applied approach to building critical skills needed to strengthen health systems and to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate health reforms.

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