The Vistaar Project: Knowledge To Practice

Focusing on bringing health care knowledge to practice, the Vistaar Project takes its name from the Hindi word for 'expansion' or 'flowering.' Led by IntraHealth, the project supports the government of India, state governments and public- and private-sector partners in achieving national maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition objectives, as outlined in India's National Rural Health Mission. 

This five-year, US $25 million program is funded by USAID/India and began in October 2006. IntraHealth's international partners include Abt Associates, Catholic Relief Services and Johns Hopkins University's Center for Communication Programs. Indian partners include but are not limited to, the Federation of Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI), the India Academy of Pediatrics (IAP),the National Neonatology Forum (NNF) and several local NGOs.

While the maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition situation in some parts of India is quite good, other, primarily rural, parts of the country face significant challenges. Working in rural districts in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the Vistaar Project will address such problems as high maternal and child mortality rates, malnutrition and gender disparities in access to health care.

The Vistaar Project will help the government achieve its goals by demonstrating cost-effective and sustainable models for the scale-up of best practices, including the promotion of skilled attendance at childbirth, the delay of marriage and first birth, and complementary feeding and growth promotion. The project will also advance the demand for and use of key health services by focusing on the household and community level. Vistaar will support the phased implementation of proven interventions in 22 districts of Uttar Pradesh and all 22 districts of Jharkhand.

The Vistaar Project will collaborate with state governments, technical experts and a wide range of stakeholders and partners to determine key activities, such as:

  • Working with senior technical advisors to ensure the collection of high quality evidence and to promote the adoption and scale-up of best practices
  • Supporting the effectiveness of primary-level providers and helping ensure that they employ and promote best practices in maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition
  • Facilitating public-private sector partnerships in order to scale up best practices
  • Learning and demonstrating appropriate and scalable behavior change strategies related to the proven best practices
  • Developing clear and simple methodologies and tools to assist with scale up
  • Designing sustainable systems for knowledge management and sharing.