Dharwad institute gets EU project

Dharwad institute gets EU project
Business Standard

Our Correspondent / Dharwad October 04, 2005

The Centre for Multi-Disciplinary Research (CMDR), Dharwad has been awarded a project by the European Union titled ‘Developing Health Accounts in Selected Indian States under Small Project Facility Programme’. Maharashtra (developed state), Karnataka (medium developed state) and Orissa (underdeveloped state) are the states selected for the study.

CMDR honorary director and economist P R Panchamukhi told reporters here on Monday that India had adopted ‘Health for All by the Year 2000 AD’. But, he said, there was a long way to go. Targets have been set as Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015.

These goals have been reiterated in the National Health Policy of 2002 that has been adopted by the Parliament. The country has been spending significant amounts towards health and medical care services, but there is still a large demand - supply gap. There is a virtual absence of low-cost risk-pooling mechanisms for the poor and vulnerable groups, Panchamukhi explained.

There is a growing realisation among administrators and researchers that a major cause of implementation slippages of the policy proclamations relate as much to the problem of non-availability of useful data as to the non-use of available data on health sector. In such a context, health sector accounting is visualised as a tool for efficient governance.

By facilitating greater transparency in the flow of resources from sources to uses, health sector accounts enable health sector managers to get a clear idea on the incidence and impacts of targetted policy interventions.

However, health accounting is still in its infancy in India. In comparison, many EU nations have well-established systems for generating health sector accounts and linking them with institutionalised processes of policy formulation. The utilisation of available EU expertise in this area for developing health accounts in the chosen states is a core component of the proposed action.

The Centre has gained some experience in health accounts in reproductive health. This will give a good mileage in field of health accounts.

Recently, the centre undertook a study in the field of reproductive health accounts sponsored by the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI).

The basic aim of the proposed action is to develop Reproductive Health Accounts (RHA) for Karnataka, using the National Health Accounts (NHA) framework.

Overall objectives were to develop methodologically robust state-level health accounts as a policy tool for better health sector governance in India, with critical inputs from EU expertise and experience and to contribute to the institutionalisation of health accounts in three Indian states (i.e., Maharashtra, Karnataka and Orissa) through insights developed from the EU experience in this regard and through pilot capacity building exercises.

Action components include the study of the experiences of EU countries about the development and use of health accounts as a tool for effective health sector governance and deriving insights applicable to the Indian context. Panchamukhi said the CMDR will use EU expertise in developing the health sector flow of funds accounts for the three states.

The other components are to learn from EU experience in institutionalising the health accounts system as a policy tool and in developing a Common Comparable Framework for health systems and to train 50 health sector stakeholders in the study states through structured capacity building modules to be developed under the project.

He informed that the Health Accounts Cell of CMDR, being set up, will take up the responsibility for replication of the process for other major states of India. Since the end output will be widely disseminated among practitioners of health accounting, there is a strong possibility that the action will provide the base material for trying out extensions relevant in the Indian context

The proposed action seeks to fill the void in systematic attempts towards developing health accounts at the sub-national level in India. Since the National Health Policy has the goal of achieving institutionalisation of health accounts by 2005, the proposed action is consistent with the national priorities relating to health sector improvement, Panchamukhi explained.

Since the study intends to develop the health accounts for the selected states with internationally accepted standards, it is expected to act as a base for its replication in other states and for the country as a whole.

Since replication of health accounts will require some degree of institutionalisation with government support, it is proposed to include key decision makers from the Ministry of Health, Government of India, and the Central Statistical Organisation (the nodal agency in the country for developing statistical data bases) in the Stakeholders’ Steering Committee of the proposed action.

Vigilance director of health (Lok Ayukta) Dr H Sudarshan will be the chief guest at the project launching ceremony on Wednesday at 11.30 AM at CMDR seminar hall.