Note on Multisectoral Approach to Health Project, U

Note on “Multisectoral Approach to Health Project, U.P.& Uttaranchal” for National Steering Committee

Background:

The Government of India has entered into an Agreement with the UNDP to implement a “Multisectoral Approach to Health Project” in the states of U.P. and Uttaranchal. This project is to be implemented in the two districts of Jhansi and Rae Bareli in U.P. and Pithoragarh in Uttaranchal.

Project Development Objectives:

• To develop models of health planning and community action
• To promote a multi-sectoral approach to health and health interventions at district, block, PHC and the community level.
• To develop a sustainable and effective partnership b/w communities, local bodies & social sector systems especially those affecting health

Project Cycle:

Project Features:

1. To make health an integral and fundamental component of panchayat level planning which would give concrete shape to inter-sectoral coordination and integration vis-à-vis health
2. To enable communities to assess the local health situation in a comprehensive manner, draw up an integrated health plan for action and implementation.
3. To integrate this pilot intervention with continuing education for women, universalization of elementary education for girls, gender equity campaigns and other developmental inputs like water and land management

Project Activities:

1. Initial sensitization to the Project Objectives and Approach at State and District levels
2. Constitutionof State Project Appraisal Committee (SPAC), Project Co-ordination Unit (PCU) at State Level, District Health Management Units (DHMUs), identification of blocks in the three districts etc.
3. Identification and selection of suitable NGOs to manage and facilitate community mobilization and other project activities like data collection, updation and collation and capacity-building
4. Capacity-building activities to train all project partners in adopting a multi-sectoral approach to health, community-based health surveillance systems (CBHSS), assessing health needs and matching available resources to meet these needs. This will include conducting Training Needs Assessment (TNA) Workshops at all levels, “Training of Trainers” (TOTs) for capacity-building activities, developing training modules for all levels of functionaries, ‘people-to-people’ sharing and learning “best practices” through “Cross-visits” and other similar exercises.
5. Empower women’s groups to perform a proactive role in viewing health in a holistic manner and decide interventions for improving the existing situation
6. Conduct Health Melas and Block Health Sammelans which are responsive to the needs based on the Village Health Plans
7. Advocacy activities (IEC) at Village, Block and District levels to raise awareness about the multisectoral approach to health
8. Monitoring and Evaluation activities at all levels
9. Documentation of community’s participatory processes for health care, ‘best practices’ and ‘lessons learnt’
10. Conducting State-level Workshops for review of project performance, planning future strategies and gleaning ‘best practices’ and ‘lessons learnt’ for future application on a larger scale.