I saw this post on the HIFA2015 Dgroup (copied below) and it reminded me of Prakash's post (abvove) about the work that he is involved in in Bihar. I reckon the results from this impact evaluation should be very interesting for both the WASH and health sectors. We should make sure they are shared as soon as they become available.

And who knows, perhaps someone from this forum will even be part of the winning team for this consultancy work?

We had a related discussion here on the forum called "The elusive effect of water and sanitation on the global burden of disease":
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/26-hea...al-burden-of-disease

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From: Paromita Mukhopadhyay, India
Date: 2014-08-28 20:17 GMT+02:00
To: HIFA2015 - Healthcare Information For All by 2015 <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>


3ie RFQ: Impact evaluation of community-based health programmes in Bihar, India

3ie RFQ for designing impact evaluations for Gram Varta and Nodal Anganwadi Centre initiatives under SWASTH, Bihar, India

3ie requests qualifications from research teams for impact evaluation of Gram Varta and Uddeepan community mobilisation initiatives of the Sector Wide Approaches to Strengthen Health (SWASTH) programme implemented by the Government of Bihar. The key objective of these initiatives is to improve health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene-related outcomes among the population, particularly the poor and excluded, in the State of Bihar. Teams are invited to submit applications for impact evaluation of one or both of the initiatives.

The impact evaluation of the Gram Varta initiative will address knowledge gaps and findings from the evaluation will (a) improve programme accountability; (b) inform policy and decision making on scaling it up; and (c) contribute to the national and global evidence base.

The impact evaluation of the Uddeepan initiative will assess the impact of the programme on a range of child and maternal health outcomes especially nutritional outcomes. Findings from this study will also have implications for scaling-up this initiative in other states of India.

Please note that

1. Only legally registered organisations and consortia of registered organisations, not individuals, may apply.
2. 3ie will award a maximum of 2 proposal preparation grants under this call.
3. The maximum budget for each proposal preparation grant is US$20,000.
4. A study team can apply for proposal preparation grants for the impact evaluation of one or both of the initiatives.
5. The lead grant-holding organisations making the application must be located in India, with researchers of Indian nationality as the lead principal investigator(s).
6. The application may include other researchers, including those from outside India who are not employees of that organisation.
7. Applicants are encouraged to include a researcher with a demonstrated global reputation as one of the principal investigators (PI).

For more information, visit:
www.3ieimpact.org/en/funding/policy-wind...h-initiatives-bihar/

For all correspondence, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with ‘Bihar’ in the subject line. The deadline for submitting applications is 23:59 GMT, 23 September 2014.

HIFA profile: Paromita Mukhopadhyay is Online Communications Officer at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, India.
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Dear all,

I have been encouraged by Arno Rosemarin whom I met at the Toilet Fair last week to share with you our large-scale health project in Bihar, India (with 50,000 communities so far and another 50,000 communities planned).

In this work, sanitation is embedded in a wider approach to community health and nutrition, i.e. it is not at the centre of the activities but it belongs to the package and is therefore important.

Our project is very innovative and converges with health, nutrition and WASH and empowers the community with intensive dialogue with women self-help groups.

The learning briefs that I add below will be important for policy makers and professionals who work for convergence of WASH with health and nutrition and empowerment of women SHGs (self-help groups) on social component. This is joint initiative of government of Bihar and UK Aid in Bihar to work with 50,000 self-help groups in the state.

I am Team Leader for the BTAST implementing SWASTH in Bihar and involved in concept, planning, roll out and evaluation of Gram Varta. Gram Varta is Hindi for village dialogue.

Here you can watch my interview with Arno from last week in Delhi (4 minutes):



The documents attached below are:

• Learning Brief 1: Gram Varta Plus: Helping Communities to Help Themselves
• Learning Brief 2: Community Led Total Sanitation: Addressing the Root of the Problem
• Learning Brief 3: Women Hand Pump Caretakers: Mechanics for Sustainable Community Water Supplies
• Learning Brief 6: Strengthening VHSNDs: A Convergent Approach

Sector Wide Approach to Strengthen Health (SWASTH)

Sector Wide Approach to Strengthen Health (SWASTH) is Government of Bihar’s initiative to improve the health and nutrition status of the people in Bihar, particularly among the poorest and excluded. It is implemented through the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Social Welfare and Public Health Engineering Departments. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is providing Financial and Technical Support (£145 million). Technical assistance to SWASTH is provided by Bihar Technical Assistance Support Team (BTAST).

Best,

Prakash

Prakash Kumar
Patna Bihar India
Skype: prakaash_k
Twitter: @prakaash_k