Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Programmes in India A Programme Science Approach

Despite the existing plethora of knowledge and continuous efforts to identify synergies and integrate the interventions across the continuum of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH), there is a lack of consensus on the best way forward to achieve the quickest reductions in maternal and child mortality rates in developing countries in a strategic and coordinated manner. This book fills the gap, and provides a strategic approach, process and tools for designing and implementing large-scale MNCH  programmes that are covered by the health system. This strategic approach termed as ‘programme science’ embeds science into all phases of programme cycle to optimize results and resources in implementing large-scale MNCH programmes. The book argues, with examples from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, that programme science as an approach can significantly improve the MNCH services in developing countries.

B.M. Ramesh is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Community Health Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba (UoM), Canada. Prior to this, he was a Director of the Population Research Centre, Dharwad, Karnataka; before that, he was a teaching faculty at the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai.

Professor Ramesh has an experience of 30 years of teaching, research and programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation in the field of demography, maternal, newborn and child health, HIV/AIDS and demographic and health surveys. He was a Project Director for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP TSU) and the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT), Bangalore. As a director at the UP TSU, he led the design of the community-, facility- and health system-level technical support strategies, setting up of the TSU (including the recruitment and training of the TSU staff) and mapping of over 9,000 public health facilities in 25 high-priority districts. He was one of the coordinators of the first round of National Family Health Survey (1992–1993).

Professor Ramesh, a demographer by training, earned his PhD in demography from Bombay University in 1986 and was a recipient of the Population Council Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1996.

Shiva S. Halli is a Professor at the Department of Community Health Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, UoM. He joined the UoM in 1986 as an Assistant Professor soon after completing his PhD in demography. Based on his exceptional performance in research, within six years he was promoted to the rank of professor in 1992. In his tenure at the UoM during the last 31 years, he has published 9 books and nearly 100 original scientific research papers.

For the last 15 years, he has been working in India on UoM projects such as those on HIV/AIDS and maternal, neonatal and child health. He is a founding member of the university’s HIV/AIDS prevention programme team in Karnataka. He was a member of the Evaluation Advisory Group of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for HIV/AIDS programme in India. Currently, he is the coordinator of the Indian programmes of the UoM.

Krishnamurthy Jayanna is currently working as a Senior Technical Advisor, Quality Improvement, for the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health projects implemented by the UoM in India and Africa. He holds a part-time faculty position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, UoM.

By training, Krishnamurthy is a physician and public health specialist with more than 15 years of experience in various capacities in the developmental field, specifically in the areas of sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and communicable and non-communicable diseases.

He received his MBBS degree from Mysore University and MD degree in community medicine from Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. He has received specialized training in research methods in sexual and reproductive health at WHO, Geneva, and has held a postdoctoral research fellowship from International Infectious Disease and Global Health Training Programme at the UoM.

Mohan H.L. is a social scientist and is currently working as a Senior Technical Advisor for UoM projects in India. He has more than 25 years of working experience in government and non-governmental sectors, especially in the areas of education, health, decentralization, adolescent education and rural development. Currently, he also holds the position of Managing Trustee of the KHPT. He has experience of working as an advisor and a consultant for development projects in India and other countries, including those of UNFPA, UNESCO and UNICEF.

Mohan earned his postgraduate degree in rural and urban community development from the School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore.