By supporting Plan Cuscatlán and Crecer Juntos, the proposed project will directly benefit children from 0 to 7 years of age (16.9 percent of the population) and women of reproductive age (33.5 percent of the population). The Project is expected to improve the capacity of health facilities at the national, regional, and municipal levels that provide care to the targeted population groups and certify their provision of care. The Project will support system development activities at all these levels, and it will strengthen the referral and counter referral capacity among levels of provision of care Project interventions will also ensure the sustainability of the investment by strengthening the staff at primary health care level and in hospitals (doctors, nurses, and other health facility staff); maintenance of infrastructure and equipment and well established protocols for monitoring progress in the years to come. Finally, some of the Project's interventions have a public good intrinsic value and will benefit the entire population, such as the regulatory and system governance components, the communication campaigns to raise awareness about ECD and nutrition, and health promotion efforts aimed at preventing risk factors.

The Project Development Objectives (PDO) are to: (i) strengthen health promotion behaviors among children aged 0 to 7 and their mothers during preconception and gestation; (ii) strengthen the early identification of risks and developmental delays in children aged 0 to 7; (iii) improve the provision of quality maternal and child health care services, and (iv) in case of an Eligible Emergency,respond promptly and effectively to it.