I have about 20 years of experience working in the area of maternal and child health with major focus on reproductive health and women’s health in the last 10 years.

In the area of reproductive health, the experiences include programme review and strategy development of national reproductive health programmes of Governments of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea, development of national strategy for ‘making pregnancy safer’ initiative of Government of Indonesia, development of reproductive health projects, national guidelines for various reproductive health services of Government of India, development of training programmes and materials for reproductive health programmes in India and in Nepal, community based studies, programme design and evaluations. The above activities were carried out for Government of India Nepal, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea, UNFPA offices in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Krygyzstan and Papua New Guinea, DFID/India, AusAid/India, USAID/India, WHO/SEARO, WHO/WPRO, WHO/Papua New Guinea, WHO/Indonesia and WHO/India.

Experiences related to HIV/AIDS include development of training and communications materials on HIV/AIDS and in reviews on various aspects of HIV/AIDS, specifically issues related to prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and to integration of reproductive health programme and HIV/AIDS programme. The above activities were carried out for WHO/SEARO, National AIDS Control Organisation of Government of India and DFID/India.

The experiences in training include conducting training needs assessments, development of competency based curriculum, training plans and competency based training materials (including training videos) for various categories of health functionaries, traditional birth attendants and indigenous system of medicine and homeopathy practitioners, design and evaluation of training of trainers programmes and training evaluation.  A major area of contribution has been in the development of a new cadre – Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery (a project of Indian Nursing Council and Government of India) and the activities include development of various training materials and practice and service standards and monitoring and evaluation of the quality of training.

Design and implementation of communication needs assessment of health workers and married men and women in various states of India leading to development of state specific communication strategies and development of IEC materials on various topics for various groups, notably women and adolescents are areas of experience in IEC. 

Operations research in maternal and child health is another area of experience. One of the important operations research has been the design and implementation of a major community based study on prevalence of abortions and quality of services, which involved co-ordination with various Medical Colleges, District Officials and peripheral health institutions.  In addition, have designed and conducted studies on nutritional status of women and children and growth monitoring.

Experiences related to Management Information Systems include implementation of the family folder based health management information system. This is a comprehensive system of recording and reporting based on regular home visits by health workers that provides accurate and updated data.

Other important experiences include assessment of facilities at all levels for quality of reproductive health care including availability of drugs and equipment and other essential facilities, making appropriate recommendations and budgeting for the same and designing a project for strengthening logistics systems of Health and Family Welfare Department of Government of Kerala.

In addition, notable experiences in various countries include:

India: Besides the various experiences listed above, developed the country paper for ICPD + 5 Conference at Hague called “India’s progress towards reproductive health goals”, a document for GoI and WHO/SEARO called “ Reproductive health for all – a profile of India 2000” based on a desk review of policy and programme and national guidelines for IUCD, oral contraceptives and emergency contraception and medical termination of pregnancy using manual vacuum aspiration.

In carrying out all the activities listed in the preceding sections, have worked closely with the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare of GoI as well as of several states of India such as West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Kerala, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. 

Have been working closely with the Government of India on various issues related to maternal health as a part time senior consultant in Reproductive and Child Health.

Indonesia: Assisted WHO/Indonesia and the Government of Indonesia with the development of the ‘Making Pregnancy Safer’ Initiative. This involved working with various stakeholders of safe motherhood programmes that includes Directorate General of Health Services of Community Health, Other Directorates of Ministry of Health, Professional organisations and donors. A log frame also was developed to assist with the implementation and monitoring of the strategy.

Bhutan: Besides being the reproductive health consultant for UNFPA’s programme review and strategy development mission as well as the programme development mission, assisted the Royal Government of Bhutan in developing the national reproductive health strategy and conducted the final evaluation of the reproductive health sub-project.

Nepal: Besides being the reproductive health consultant for UNFPA’s programme review and strategy development mission, developed the integrated reproductive health training programme for the maternal and child health workers. This involved revising the job description, developing a competency based curriculum, training plan, training materials for trainers, designing the training of trainers programme and participating in the same.

Krygyzstan:  Assisted UNFPA in the assessment of the Social Patronage System Workers, which involved development of assessment tools, analysing them and writing the report.

Papua New Guinea: Chief Technical Advisor for the UNFPA assisted RH project. Was responsible for the implementation of the project under Country Programme 2 as well as the design of the RH component project of Country Programme 3. Provided technical assistance to the Government of Papua New Guinea, WHO and UNFPA on reproductive health.