Health Finance and Governance Project (HFG) Final Report 2012-2018

Led by Abt Associates, the project collaborated with the Indian government, local institutions, and civil society organizations to increase access to quality public health care. HFG provided sustained technical support to strengthen government strategies for health financing, governance, management, and monitoring. The project focused on several key areas, including building technical capacity of government health staff, fostering local solutions, promoting data-informed policy and practice, and strengthening civil society to promote transparent and accountable service delivery. HFG also lent on-the-ground technical expertise for the successful implementation of several of the Indian government's new health initiatives in priority areas such as maternal and child health, family planning, adolescent health, and tuberculosis. One of the major accomplishments of the HFG project was the successful rollout of the national health index, a first-of-its-kind effort in India to track how different states perform on health outcomes. The Performance on Health Outcomes index measures year-on-year incremental progress each state makes on 28 key indicators and ranks the states based on their performance. The results of the comparative assessment will play a major role in determining the allocation of central resources to each state, spurring competition among states to improve their health performance. HFG's technical experts mentored state health officials for several months to develop their understanding of the health index tool, build their capacity on data requirements and data sources, support them in data collection and verification, and enable submission of data on the NITI Aayog portal. As a result of HFG's support, state governments are now equipped to undertake successive annual implementations of the health index tool. The HFG project also supported the development and implementation of several other initiatives, including the Family Planning Logistics Management Information System (FP-LMIS), assessment of data quality in the country's Health Management and Information System (HMIS), comprehensive assessment of India's TB diagnostic network, and review of menstrual hygiene management schemes. Additionally, HFG's work in health financing led to the first-ever production of state health accounts (HA) in Haryana state and supported the scale-up of innovative community-owned micro-insurance initiatives. These efforts laid the groundwork for improved management of public health funds and development of financial risk protection instruments that enable the poor to access quality health care without risking financial ruin. The HFG project's accomplishments will shape the direction of a strengthened health system in India and improve health outcomes for its people.