SHILLONG: The government think tank NITI Aayog held a regional workshop for the northeastern states in the city on Friday to disseminate the ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ index to rank as well as nudge states towards transformative action in the health sector.
Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, said the focus of the index, spearheaded jointly with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was on health outcomes and states could decide on the strategies to achieve this. The index will indicate the annual incremental improvements in states rather than focus on historical achievements.
Indicating that the exercise is a Centre-state partnership programme, Kant said the index will be linked to financial incentives. “Several good practices are being undertaken at the State-level and this is an initiative to learn from each other and promote cross-learning,” he added.
The index includes measurable outcomes like still birth rate, neonatal mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, total fertility rate, low birth weight among newborns, sex ratio at birth and out-of-pocket expenditure, among others. It also includes indicators of governance, including tenures of key officials in a state and data integrity of health management information systems. The health index, which was introduced last December, will also help in monitoring of performance at the state-level, thereby meeting citizens’ expectations. The features of the index, measures included and methods of data submission are being disseminated to the States through a series of these regional workshops.
The index has been developed over the last eight months, with technical inputs from domestic and international experts in health and economics, including academicians and development partners, seeking feedback from States through multiple iterations and pre-testing the indicators in two States prior to its finalisation. The exercise involves participation of several partners, including technical assistance by the World Bank, mentor agencies to handhold states wherever required during the exercise and third party organisations to validate the data submitted, prior to calculation of the index.
The data will be entered and results published on a dynamic Web portal hosted by NITI Aayog. The exercise was aimed at bringing health to the centrestage of public policy and to ensure that with increased budgetary allocations for the sector this year, there are increased efforts to achieve commensurate outcomes through efficient spending.
The NITI Aayog delegates were welcomed by Additional Chief Secretary of Health Y. Tsering.
