Improving maternal and child health in India: evaluating demand and supply side strategies

Abstract

The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding, producing and synthesising high-quality evidence of what works, how, why and at what cost. We believe that better and policy-relevant evidence will make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie impact evaluations3ie-supported impact evaluations assess the difference a development intervention has made to social and economic outcomes. 3ie is committed to funding rigorous evaluations that include a theory-based design, use the most appropriate mix of methods to capture outcomes and are useful in complex development contexts. About this report3ie accepted the final version of this report, Improving maternal and child health in India: evaluating demand and supply strategies, as partial fulfilment of requirements under OW2.205 issued under Open Window 2. The content has been copy-edited and formatted for publication by 3ie. Due to unavoidable constraints at the time of publication, a few of the tables or figures may be less than optimal. Some appendixes are available online.All the content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not represent the opinions of 3ie, its donors or its board of commissioners. Any errors and omissions are also the sole responsibility of the authors. Any comments or queries should be directed to the corresponding author, Manoj Mohanan at manoj.mohanan@duke.edu Funding for this impact evaluation was provided by 3ie's donors, which include UK aid, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation. A complete listing of our donors is provided on the 3ie website. AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to 3ie, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation and the Department of International Development (DFID-India) for their financial support of this study. Our special thanks to Howard White and Jyotsna Puri for their valuable inputs throughout the project. We would also like to acknowledge the financial support we received from the World Bank for the provider incentives experiment that we conducted in rural Karnataka. We are extremely grateful to the State Departments of Health & Family Welfare, Governments of Gujarat and Karnataka for making this research possible and for the timely support and feedback provided to us. We would like to give special acknowledgement to the Principal Secretary & Commissioner (Health & Family Welfare) and all the State Health officials and district officials that we met and interacted with during the course of the Gujarat evaluation, in particular, Dr Amarjeet Singh, Smt. V.L. Joshi and Dr N.B. Dholakia.We are very thankful to the immense support we received from the Project Administrators, Deputy Directors and Joint Directors at the Karnataka Health System Development & Reforms Project (KHSDRP) during the study period. In particular, our special thanks goes out to Dr Vandita Sharma, Mr Selva Kumar, Dr Suresh Mohammed, Mr Raghavend...