New Award: Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI)

The Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition is pleased to announce the award on July 29, 2004 of a Task Order called Prevention of Postpartum Hemorrhage Initiative (POPPHI) under the Indefinite Quantity Contract titled “Population, Health and Nutrition Technical Assistance Support Contract (TASC II) – Global Sector.” The POPPHI activity number is 936.3092.07.

The 27-month, $1,418,566 task order was awarded to Research Triangle Institute. The partnership team includes PATH and EngenderHealth.

This Task Order is part of USAID’s broader Special Initiative to reduce postpartum hemorrhage, the single most important cause of maternal death worldwide, through expanded use of Active Management of the Third Stage of Labor (AMTSL) - an intervention that significantly reduces the incidence of postpartum hemorrhage. The Special Initiative will achieve the following results:

• Expand AMTSL through non-training approaches to improve provider practice.
• Improve the quality and availability of AMTSL at facility level.
• Improve the quality and availability of AMTSL at community level.
• Make uterotonic drugs and devices available at low cost to countries.

Under the umbrella of the Special Initiative, the objective of POPPHI is to expand the use of AMTSL for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. POPPHI will provide technical and managerial support for the implementation of the Special Initiative and will perform the following tasks:

• Assist USAID to coordinate and collaborate with all implementing partners and new partners, especially regulatory agencies in countries and partners in the private sector.
• Support professional associations for the launch of the Joint International Confederation of Midwives / International Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (ICM/FIGO) statement on AMTSL.
• Develop a small grants program to assist local country professional associations to promote AMTSL.
• Convene a working group comprising representatives from USAID, the USAID-funded projects working on aspects of postpartum hemorrhage prevention, private sector partners, and representatives from selected host country government regulatory agencies, to address the problem of access to uterotonics at country-level for AMTSL.
• Be positioned to provide Missions and Regional Bureaus with technical assistance for focused activities.
• Monitor the uptake of AMTSL globally, whether funded centrally, through field support or Mission bilateral programs, or by other donor and/or host country health programs.

POPPHI is mandated to work closely with other partners of the Special Initiative, particularly RPM Plus, Health Tech, and the new Access to Clinical and Community Maternal, Neonatal and Women’s Health Services (ACCESS). RPM Plus is responsible for pharmaceutical forecasting, procurement and logistics; Health Tech is responsible for activities related to the product development of oxytocin in Uniject. ACCESS will promote the use of AMTSL in facilities and in the community by establishing clinical standards and guidelines, strengthening systems for provider skills and supervision, and developing training and IEC materials.

USAID/W will accept Mission and Regional Bureau field support funds into this Task Order for country- and region-specific activities guided by Mission/Region input on the scope of work with delegation of technical oversight to the Mission/Regional Bureau.

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