According to a joint press release by US Representatives DeGette, Dingell, and Brown, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has  awarded a $43.8 million dollar contract to Abt Associates to provide universal health service to 25 million Iraqis within a year. Abt Associates is to "help facilitate rapid, universal health service delivery to the Iraqi population" including "basic health care available to 12.5 million persons" after six months and "25 million persons" after one year.  The Administration also requires all 25 million Iraqis to have maternal, child health care, and health information and education after six months of program implementation. http://www.house.gov/commerce_democrats/press/108nr17.htm

Abt Associates (www.abtassoc.com) is a private, employee-owned company that applies rigorous research and consulting techniques, as well as technical assistance expertise, to a wide range of issues in social and economic policy, international development, business research and consulting, and clinical trials and registries. Since its founding in 1965, Abt Associates has provided services to U.S. federal, state and local governments; foreign governments; international organizations; foundations; and business and industry. Its staff of over 1,000 employees is located in offices in Cambridge, Lexington, and Amherst, Massachusetts; and offices in Bethesda, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Old Greenwich, Connecticut; Chicago, Illinois; Cairo, Egypt; and Pretoria, South Africa.  Abt is one of at least three Iraq reconstruction contractors that have been fined by the federal government for work done on previous contracts.

 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

The following is May 15, 2003 testimony from a senior US Agency for International Development (USAID) on how U.S government is engaged with humanitarian groups and U.S. private companies to deliver humanitarian relief and reconstruction assistance to Iraq, and documents the devastation of both the recent Iraq war and the 12 year sanctions:

 Since 1991, almost one-third of all children in the south and center of Iraq have suffered from malnutrition, and the child mortality rate doubled from the decade before. Diarrhea and acute respiratory infections accounted for 70 percent of childhood deaths. This was aggravated by inadequate potable water supply and sanitary services and a high incidence of low birth weight infants and low exclusive breastfeeding rates. In addition, government investment in managerial and technical expertise of staff and maintenance of health infrastructure was poor.

Initial evaluations of the health sector today show that health services have been disrupted and equipment, medicines, and supplies have been looted from some health facilities and warehouses. No major outbreaks of communicable diseases have been reported so far, but the potential exists since the public health system and immunization programs have been disrupted. While there appear to be adequate donated and pre-positioned medical supplies in Iraq for urgent health requirements, medicines for some chronic diseases, e.g., diabetes and heart disease, are in short supply. The key challenge for assistance providers is the distribution of these medicines throughout the country in light of current security concerns.

USAID's objectives are to meet urgent health needs as well as to normalize health services rapidly. As a complement to the relief efforts undertaken by OFDA and State/PRM, USAID is also supporting UNICEF and WHO as well as the American private sector expertise provided by Abt Associates, in an effort to address health sector requirements. USAID funded UNICEF to purchase a 100-day supply of chlorine for treating water in southern Iraq, thus helping to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases. UNICEF has also provided medicines that help prevent visceral leishmaniasis, and its water team is sending an average of 50 tankers per day of clean water to Iraq from Kuwait. To treat children with diarrhea, UNICEF has delivered oral re-hydration salts. An extra 200,000 packets are being rushed to the region to deal the possibility of cholera.

WHO staff in the field have set up a surveillance system to monitor cholera outbreaks. They are currently conducting a survey of diarrhea cases in other hospitals, and have established an outbreak committee that is implementing control measures using pre-positioned supplies.

We recognize that these interventions need to be maintained to ensure that a humanitarian crisis continues to be averted.