Carolina Population Center given $180 million grant

A $180 million award was given to the Carolina Population Center, a community of professionals and scholars who collaborate on understanding population issues.

The award went into effect July 1 and was the second largest ever received by UNC.

Awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the money is going toward a project started in 1997 through the center’s Monitoring and Evaluation to Assess and Use Results Evaluation project, known as MEASURE Evaluation.

The MEASURE group has been working with the agency for 15 years to increase the capability to monitor health outcomes in developing countries, said S. Philip Morgan, director of the Carolina Population Center.

“The (agency) will have conversations with the host countries about disease burden, and the discussions will be around how the (agency) and MEASURE can help set up a data collection system that would allow them to monitor a disease over time and across areas,” Morgan said.

“MEASURE helps those countries set up the ability to monitor how much of the disease burden is appearing and then develops the capabilities to analyze those data and make appropriate decisions.”

For the last 10 to 15 years, MEASURE has worked with developing countries to set up data systems and train people to analyze the data, he said.

Jason Smith, deputy director for MEASURE Evaluation, said the federal government continues to invest in improving health systems in developing countries.

“Some of the specifics they asked us to look at are different this time around because the field has evolved a bit,” Smith said.

“We are supposed to be improving health and health information systems in developing countries and do research and help the (agency) make it better.”

Leah Wyatt, knowledge management specialist for MEASURE Evaluation, said the money is going toward Phase IV of the project.

“We have been asked to be more sustainable and have the systems be completely owned and run by (the developing countries),” she said.

Morgan said the award is important not because of the amount of money, but because of its impact on global health.

“MEASURE is a great example of a project that is research-oriented and has real practical implications in the world,” he said.

“The disease burden in developing countries has an impact on developed countries too, because we are an integrated world.”

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