Ministry of Health and Population Cairo,Egypt and El-Zanaty Associates Cairo, Egypt and ORC Macro Calverton, Maryland, USA

The 2004 Egypt Service Provision Assessment (ESPA 2004) was conducted in a representative sample of 659 health facilities throughout Egypt. At the request of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), seven governorates (Cairo, Alexandria, Fayoum, Beni Suef, Menya, Qena, and Aswan) that are part of a USAID-supported pilot project were oversampled to provide key indicators for these areas. The survey covered general, district, and integrated hospitals (referred to in the report as “general service hospitals”), fever hospitals, maternal and child health/urban health units (MCH/urban HUs), rural health units (rural HUs), mobile units, health offices, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) facilities. The ESPA 2004 used interviews with health service providers and clients, as well as observations of provider-client consultations, to obtain information on the capacity of facilities to provide quality services and the existence of functioning systems to support quality services. The areas addressed were the overall facility infrastructure and resources; specific child health, family planning, and maternal health services; and services for specific infectious illnesses—reproductive tract and sexually transmitted infections (RTI/STIs) and tuberculosis. The objective was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the infrastructure and systems supporting these services, as well as to assess the adherence to standards in the delivery of curative care for children, family planning, antenatal care (ANC), and consultations for RTI/STIs. The ESPA 2004 was undertaken jointly by the MOHP and El-Zanaty Associates, with technical assistance provided through ORC Macro under the MEASURE DHS project. USAID provided financial support for the survey.