Vistaar Project
Focusing 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, the Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs 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, 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:
- Complementary feeding
- Anemia prevention and treatment
- Newborn care
- Delay of marriage and first birth
- Village health committees
- Performance improvement and support for community health workers.
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
As one of its key activities, the Vistaar Project facilitated the National Nutrition Conclave held in Chennai, India from August 12–14. The conclave focused on the question: A Nutrition-secure India-How Do We Get There? As a result of the conclave a high level National Coalition for a Sustainable Nutrition Secure India has been formed to carry forward the recommendations of the conclave.
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: vistaar_brochure.pdf
Contact: In India, Laurie Noto Parker, infovistaar@intrahealth.org . In the US, Sara Lewis, slewis@intrahealth.org.
Related resources:
- Evidence Review Briefs and supplementary materials
- A Nutrition Secure India: How Do We Get There? [videos]
Related news: