Case Studies

Promoting Results and Outcomes through Policy and Economic Levers (PROPEL) Health is a five-year, global project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Through a concentration on policy, financing, governance, and advocacy, PROPEL Health is improving the enabling environment for equitable and sustainable health services, supplies, and delivery systems with a focus on family planning and reproductive health and its integration with HIV, maternal and child health, and primary healthcare. 

In 2023 alone, PROPEL, which works in 19 countries across 31 core activities, reached over 11 million people. From Burkina Faso to El Salvador and Kenya to Malawi, PROPEL is supporting, developing, revising, and helping countries to adopt policies that are already improving the lives of millions of people and will continue to do so well into the future.  

In El Salvador, the team is strengthening the government’s capacity to design and roll out health security policies and better prepare the government to prevent emerging infectious disease threats, including both human and zoonotic diseases. This effort falls within the country’s Global Health Security Agenda using a One Health approach.  

In December 2023, PROPEL Health El Salvador supported the One Health National Technical Committee to review and provide technical feedback on the national preparedness and response plan for events caused by respiratory viruses with pandemic potential. Participants in the multisectoral review included representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and multilateral agencies.  

The plan promotes an effective and coordinated response to public health emergencies related to respiratory viruses. It focuses on prevention, detection, and response actions to mitigate the negative impacts associated with these viruses, which will reduce burden on the health system and protect vulnerable groups that face a higher risk of complications and death due to these diseases. 

During National Family Planning Week in November 2023, PROPEL Health worked with community groups in targeted regions in Burkina Faso to improve access to family planning information and services based on the barriers seen in each region. In the Centre-Est region, where over a quarter of adolescents 15–19 years of age have been pregnant, the project supported the youth association SOS/Jeunesse et défis to organise intergenerational dialogues on family planning, sexuality, and cultural and religious barriers to reliable information.  

Since launching, the initiative has expanded to 17 community organisations who have committed to hosting similarly structured dialogues. Likewise, in the Sud-Ouest region, the project supported URCB, a religious and traditional leaders’ group to organise community dialogues aimed at involving men in family planning programs to bring about sustainable behaviour change. There, male leaders have committed to holding additional community dialogues to discuss family planning and strategies to support family planning programs.  

In the Centre-Ouest region, to combat high rates of unmet need for family planning, PROPEL Health supported the Initiative d’aide au développement local to organise community dialogues and interactive radio broadcasts to engage and empower women in creating greater access to family planning services. These sessions reached nearly 4 million people and led to commitments from community leaders to hold additional broadcasts and dialogues. 

Reaching people and impacting lives isn’t always as simple as a one-to-one interaction. As PROPEL proves, impact at scale comes through big changes, often happening behind the scenes.