When USAID administrator Rajiv Shah delivered a major speech on global health innovation before the National Institutes of Health earlier this month, one of his first points was the need for countries to have local leadership and ownership of health programs. “We need to improve the efficiency of our efforts and focus on building country-led health systems instead of donor-driven disease control programs,” Shah said.  

In one sentence he brought up an example from Mali, one of MLI’s countries, where remarkable new efficiencies were found in delivering health.

“In Mali, we were able to integrate five separate annual health campaigns into one streamlined program,” said Shah. “The program boosted provision of vitamin A supplements and neglected tropical disease treatments while cutting the cost of delivery in half.”

There is, however, a back story to Shah's story, and it involves a long process of Mali and the United States trying to craft a new type of relationship.

In the efforts to expand access to family planning services in the developing world, victories are often long in coming.

In Mali, officials are nearing a critical point:  Family planning is on the verge of becoming part of standard health insurance benefits packages. 

MLI has been working closely with Mali government leaders at the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Protection to secure family planning as a covered benefit in their mutuelles program, or community based health insurance models.

Cheickna Touré, the Deputy Director of Union Technique de la Mutualité Malienne (UTM) and close MLI collaborator in Mali, emphasized the importance of family planning as part of health insurance programs at the recent West Africa conference, “Family Planning in the context of Population and Development: the Urgency to Act,” held in Burkino Faso.