Empowerment Builds Capacity for Stronger, Healthier Communities

This report covers the life of project results of the USAID-funded Integrated Health Project Plus (IHPplus) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Implemented by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and Overseas Strategic Consulting, Ltd. (OSC), under a subcontract via Pathfinder/Evidence to Action (E2A), IHPplus was implemented from June 2015–June 2018 to avoid a gap in services in USAID-supported health zones upon completion of the USAID Health Office’s five-year flagship Integrated Health Project (IHP) in September 2015. Field activity implementation started in October 2015 to complement the end of IHP. IHPplus aimed to improve the basic health conditions of the Congolese people in selected health zones. The objective contributed to the United States Government (USG) Country Development and Cooperation Strategy and emerging USG priorities in the Global Health Initiative. The project fully supported: the Government of the DRC policies and strategies for the health sector, as articulated in its Health Systems Strengthening Strategy (Stratégie de Renforcement du Système de Santé/SRSS); and the 2016-2020 National Health Development Plan (Plan National de Développement Sanitaire/PNDS). The original, five-year DRC-IHP worked closely with the Government of DRC to strengthen the country’s health system at every level and to achieve the MOH target of saving the lives of 437,000 mothers and children over five years. Data modeling using the Lives Saved Tool (LiST) showed that IHPplus contributed towards saving more than an estimated 88,000 lives of children and newborns.