The Vistaar Project

KidsFocusing on taking health care knowledge to practice, the Vistaar Project takes its name from the Hindi word for "expansion" or "flowering." Led by IntraHealth International, the purpose of the project is to assist Government of India and the State Governments of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in improving maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition.

This five-year, $25 million project is funded by USAID/India and began in October 2006. IntraHealth’s partners include Abt Associates, Catholic Relief Services, and many local Indian organizations. The Vistaar Project works in close consultation and collaboration with the Government of India and the State Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

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 the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, the Vistaar Project is addressing maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition-related issues. These two states are home to approximately 10 million pregnant women and 14 million children under the age of five.

The project is designed to assist the Government of India's maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition programs. It seeks to promote the transfer of knowledge to practice and the use of data for decision-making, and it focuses on the following technical themes:

The Vistaar Project started by facilitating evidence reviews on the technical themes above. These reviews were conducted by recognized public and private sector experts. Based on the resultant recommendations, the project is supporting one or more of the following activities:

  • Providing technical assistance for maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition programming on a growing scale
  • Filling critical knowledge gaps in the selected technical thematic areas through demonstration and learning projects
  • Advocacy and capacity-building on specific issues under the above themes.

A high level Coalition for Sustainable Nutrition Security in India has been formed to carry forward the recommendations of the National Nutrition Conclave, held in 2007. The project now serves as Secretariat for the coalition and led the development of the coalition's website.

The project also addresses issues that cut across its technical themes, including knowledge generation and sharing, facilitating collaboration and convergence, and promoting interventions with a strong equity focus, including gender equity.

For more information, see our Vistaar Project brochure.

Contact: Madhuri Narayanan
Project Director and Country Representative
A2/35 Safdarjung Enclave
New Delhi, India  110029
infovistaar@intrahealth.org