Population Services International

PSI is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that harnesses the vitality of the private sector to address the health problems of low-income and vulnerable populations in more than 60 developing countries. With programs in malaria, reproductive health, child survival and HIV, PSI promotes products, services and healthy behavior that enable low-income and vulnerable people to lead healthier lives. Products and services are sold at subsidized prices rather than given away in order to motivate commercial sector involvement.

PSI is the leading nonprofit social marketing organization in the world.

The mission of PSI is to measurably improve the health of poor and vulnerable people in the developing world, principally through social marketing of family planning and health products and services, and health communications. Social marketing engages private sector resources and uses private sector techniques to encourage healthy behavior and make markets work for the poor.

PSI was founded in 1970 to improve reproductive health using commercial marketing strategies. For its first 15 years, PSI worked mostly in family planning (hence the name Population Services International). In 1985, it started promoting oral rehydration therapy. PSI’s first HIV prevention project — which promoted abstinence, fidelity and condoms — began in 1988. PSI added malaria and safe water to its portfolio in the 1990s.

Malaria:
Each year 350-500 million cases of malaria lead to more than one million deaths, mostly of African children. To prevent malaria, PSI uses targeted subsidies to make insecticide-treated mosquito nets and long-lasting insecticidal nets available to malaria risk groups (especially pregnant women and children under five) through public and private channels in endemic countries. To treat malaria, PSI uses social marketing to make pre-packaged therapy widely available and affordable through commercial outlets. PSI estimates that in 2006, these products directly prevented 34 millions episodes of malaria, saving the lives of 140,000 children.

Reproductive Health:
Every year there are 66 million unintended pregnancies and more than 500,000 deaths from pregnancy-related causes. PSI provides the information and tools necessary for couples to space the births of their children, improving the health of the entire family. In 2006, increased knowledge and access to a range of contraceptive methods is estimated to have averted 6.7 million unintended pregnancies and 13,000 maternal deaths due to complications related to pregnancy and child birth. Additionally, PSI markets clean delivery kits and multivitamins with iron and folic acid to women of reproductive age in several countries.

Water/Child Survival:
Every day 5,000 children die from diarrheal diseases caused mainly by drinking contaminated water. To prevent these diseases, PSI uses social marketing to distribute safe water products that allow families to treat their water at home. To treat dehydration caused by diarrhea, PSI markets oral rehydration salts. These products, in combination with educational communication campaigns, enabled PSI to avert an estimated 11 million cases of diarrhea in 2006. PSI also markets nutritional supplements, such as Sprinkles flakes which are mixed into children’s porridge or milk to prevent iron deficiency that can lead to impairment of cognitive growth.

HIV:
Millions of people each year become infected with HIV. To reduce the number of infections, PSI uses a balanced and targeted approach including the promotion of abstinence, mutual fidelity and correct and consistent condom use. PSI also implements voluntary counseling and testing alongside a variety of educational and behavior change communication campaigns that discourage harmful cultural norms such as unprotected sex, cross-generational sex and stigma and prejudice against people living with HIV. In 2006, PSI products and services are estimated to have prevented more than 218,000 HIV infections.

PSI has an uncommon focus on measurable health impact and attempts to measure its effect on disease and death much like a for-profit measures its profits. In 2006, PSI estimates that its programs directly prevented more than 218,000 HIV infections, 6.7 million unintended pregnancies, more than 140,000 child deaths from malaria and diarrhea and 34 million malaria episodes.

PSI and its affiliates are committed to reaching the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): its programs are contributing directly to achieving five of them and indirectly to two more.

The MDGs, adopted by world leaders from 189 countries at the United Nations in 2000, are ambitious targets for improving life in the developing world by 2015 and, ultimately, for ending poverty.

Karl Hoffman

Frank Loy, Chair
Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC

Rehana Ahmed
Physician
Nairobi, Kenya

Frank Carlucci
Chairman Emeritus
The Carlyle Group
Washington, DC

Sarah G. Epstein
Population Consultant
Washington, DC

Shima Gyoh
Chairman, Nigerian Medical and Dental Council
Nkar, Benue State, Nigeria

Gail McGreevy Harmon
Partner
Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP
Washington, DC

William C. Harrop
Former U.S. Ambassador to Guinea, Israel, Kenya and Zaire and Inspector General of the U.S. Department of State and the Foreign Service
Washington, DC

Judith Richards Hope
Professor/Attorney
Washington, DC

Adriaan Jacobovits de Szeged
Former Netherlands Ambassador to the United States
The Hague, The Netherlands

Ashley Judd
Actor/Activist
Franklin, Tennessee

M. Peter McPherson
Founding Co-Chair, Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa and President Emeritus, Michigan State University
Washington, DC

Gilbert Omenn
Professor of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics and Public Health
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Malcolm Potts
Bixby Professor, School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California

Mechai Viravaidya
Chairman
Population and Community Development Association
Bangkok, Thailand

Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Congo, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the, Costa Rica, Cote D'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, United Republic of, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Viet Nam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

1120 19TH ST NW STE 600
WASHINGTON, DC 20036-3605
Phone: (202) 785-0072
www.psi.org
EIN: 56-0942853