November 2020 – This study published in the Journal of Global Health shares the early results from a quasi-experimental study in Bihar, India. The Ananya program in Bihar implemented household and community-level interventions to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (RMNCHN) in two phases: a first phase of intensive ancillary support to governmental implementation and innovation testing by nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners in eight focus districts (2012-2014), followed by a second phase of state-wide government-led implementation with techno-managerial assistance from NGOs (2014 onwards). This paper examines trends in RMNCHN indicators in the program’s implementation districts from 2012-2017.
The study found that Improvements in indicators were conditional on implementation support to program activities at a level of intensity that was higher than what could be achieved at scale so far. Successes during the pilot phase of intensive support suggests that RMNCHN can be improved statewide in Bihar with sufficient investments in systems performance improvements.