PSI India works with families, communities, and health systems to put the mother, child and adolescents at the center of our maternal and child health (MCH) and Adolescent Youth Sexual Reproductive Health (AYSRH) interventions.
Everybody plays a part. For example, The Challenge Initiative India (TCI India) helped train 6,679 ASHAs reach more than one million women with family planning and maternal and new born health (MNH) services in urban slums of 36 cities in the states of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Odisha.
The initiative helped 15 cities in project states scale up AYSRH interventions by offering adolescent-friendly health services (AFHS) in 334 UPHCs, helping reach more than 34,647 boys and girls through 2495 Community Adolescent Health Days (AHD) so far.
PSI India continuously harness learnings from its interventions to best address the health needs of the deprived communities. Thus, the two rounds of ‘Reflection and Action to Improve Self-reliance and Effectiveness (RAISE)’ for healthcare functionaries to self-assess progress help and informed the design and implementation of Mission Pragati with the objective to stimulate demand and supply of urban family planning services in 20 TCI India-supported cities.
We believe a collective partnership is the most prudent approach to achieving desired outcomes in MCH. This is why the Utkrisht project– an example of successful partnership between PSI India, Palladium, HLFPPT, UBS Optimus Foundation, Mathematica, MSD for Mothers and USAID - has been able to manpower 900 private sector small health care organization (SHCO) facilities, assess and facilitated 185 facilities achieve acquire Matritya Quality certification and accreditation for increased access to high quality MNCH services.
ASHAs reach more than one million women with FP and maternal
and new born health services in 36 cities in three states.
“I was trained by The Challenge Initiative (TCI). But when my mother fell ill of cancer, I was torn between my love for my mother and the needs ofa large number of women who depended on me for their FP needs,” says Manisha. Read full story More stories
It’s about listening to women, to families that support them, about what’s important to them. this is why all our programmes are about reaching, hearing and responding to the needs of women, so we can work together to ensure the best outcomes for them in our communities.
To illustrate: TCI India, working to expand access to and demand for modern contraceptives among all women 15-49 years of age, lays special emphasis on married and unmarried youth and first-time parents 14-24 years of age, for whom the market is failing.
It is also why 15 TCI India cities have scaled up AYSRH interventions by offering AFHS in 334 UPHCs in these cities, and why over 2495 community Adolescent Health Days (AHD) events were held in five cities, reaching 34,647 boys and girls.
Winning the war on MCH requires more than a programme; it requires concerted action from all partners to work together as one.
TCI India coaching model works with and supports all levels of government health systems, including urban primary health centers (UPHC), Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) on conceptual and practical ‘know-how’ in implementing high-impact interventions.
The Utkrisht project is a collaboration between PSI India, Palladium, HLFPPT, UBS Optimus Foundation, Mathematica, MSD for Mothers and USAID in Rajasthan by facilitating private sector small health care organizations (SHCOs) acquire Matritya Quality certification and accreditation to improve the quality of intra-partum care. PSI also collaborated with institutions like Asian Research & Training Institute for Skill Transfer (ARTIST), to provide web-based training to QI trainers, facility providers, etc.
The Universal Access to Quality Contraception (UAQ) project in UP is supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) applied a total market approach (TMA) for comprehensive, client-centric, consumer-powered family planning services, which places choice in the hands of the consumer, with a focus on youth and low-income clients.
Interventions like TCI India empower local governments to rapidly to implement and sustain reproductive health solutions using the innovative ‘coaching’ model. In UP, for example, this approach is helping UPHCs identify gaps across service delivery points, strengthening capacities of ASHAs, etc. leading to not only a substantial growth in family planning services uptake but also improve the use of data for decision-making, combat family planning supply stock-outs, procure the needed equipment for family planning service delivery, strengthen data quality mechanisms, etc.
Similarly, the previous Expanded Access to Quality Contraception (EAQ) project created and sustained India’s best strategic purchasing mechanism called “Hausala Sajheedari” (HS). Building on the success of the HS PSI India launched the UAQ project, which focus on helping women meet their unmet need for contraception by facilitating access to any method of their choice from public or private facilities, with a focus on youth and low-income clients.
