Population Services International

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Population Services International (PSI): PSI is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that uses private sector funding to address the health problems of low-income and vulnerable populations in 70 developing countries. ^{[citation needed]}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. ^{[citation needed]} 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. ^{[citation needed]}PSI is now the leading nonprofit social marketing organization in the world. ^{[citation needed]}

History: 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. ^{[citation needed]} 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. ^{[citation needed]}