Zimbabwe's Second Family Health Project (1992-96) is the culmination of a long period of interaction between the government of Zimbabwe and multilateral and bilateral donors. The US$120 million project supports the government's five year investment programme for population, health and nutrition and is designed to benefit directly low-income households, especially women and children. The project preparation committee included representatives from various central government departments, provincial governments and the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council. The committee set planning guidelines which were used to prepared funding proposals locally. Virtually all the major donors to the health sector in Zimbabwe helped with planning the project by assigning agency officials and technical specialist to the donor team that advised the government on design issues. In the end the project received financing from Denmark, the EEC/EU, Norway, Sweden, UK and the World Bank. Donors monitor project implementation jointly rather than separately, reducing the time needed for donor review and the administrative burden on the government.
In Bangladesh the World Bank and ten bilateral agencies together are contributing $440 million to the Fourth Population and health project, and the government is providing $165 million, for a total of $605 million over the five-year project period. The United Nations Population Fund, WHO and UNICEF are supplying project management, procurement and technical assistance. All the partners in the project belong to the Bangladesh Population and Health Consortium which operates on the basis of strict equality of all the partners, independent of the size of their financial contributions. The Asian Development Bank has joined the consortium with a view to ensuring consistency between the project and its own $60 million investment in population and health in Bangladesh. The consortium approach enables the government and the donor community to agree on an overall strategy and to work out a consistent financing plan for the sector. In addition to strengthening Bangladesh's population programme and its delivery system for family planning services, the consortium is attempting to reorient the health care system toward public health, including maternal health. It is also trying to make basic services more easily accessible to the rural and urban poor.