Population Services International

Population Services International (PSI):

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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 70 developing countries. PSI, with programs in safe water/oral rehydration, malaria, nutrition/micronutrients, family planning and HIV/AIDS, deploys commercial marketing strategies to promote health 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 enhance their perceived value, increasing the likelihood of use, and to motivate commercial sector involvement. PSI is now the leading nonprofit social marketing organization in the world.

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http://www.psi.org

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History:

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PSI was founded in 1970 to demonstrate that social marketing of contraceptives, managed entirely in the private sector, could succeed under differing circumstances and on different continents. For its first 16 years, PSI worked entirely in family planning (hence the name Population Services International), except for oral rehydration therapy which it started in 1985. PSI's first HIV/AIDS prevention project ? which promoted abstinence, fidelity and condoms ? began in 1988. PSI entered the areas of malaria and safe water in the mid-1990s.

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Health Impact:

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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 2004, PSI estimates that its programs directly prevented more than 800,000 HIV infections, 6.1 million unintended pregnancies, 11.5 million malaria episodes and a variety of other health impacts.

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