PRESS RELEASE: New Report on Integrated Health and Microfinance in India Shows the Way Forward

Friday, August 1, 2014

On July 29, 2014, Freedom from Hunger, the Microcredit Summit Campaign, and the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar released a new report titled “Integrated Health and Microfinance in India, Volume II: The Way Forward.” The report was released in advance of the South Asia Conference on Policies and Practices to Improve Nutrition Security in New Delhi, India.

M. S. Swaminathan, the “Indian Father of the Green Revolution” and chair of the Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security, joined the authors in a discussion of the report. “India, despite the many programs and efforts, is stagnating at the 131st position on the global hunger index and is experiencing a similar lack of upward progress on the Human Development Index…What is needed is greater synergy across programs such as agriculture, nutrition, health, and microfinance.” He went on to say that the report demonstrates that a synergistic approach between health and microfinance can make a big difference and expressed his hope that this report will support greater take-up of this approach.

The report also received praise from A. R. Nanda, former Secretary in the Government of India for the Ministries of Health and Finance, saying that this second volume will “further inform and advocate for broader recognition by stakeholders and policy makers on the opportunity for improving access for poor families with simple but important health and nutrition interventions in a cost-effective manner using MFIs and SHGs.”

The latest volume of the report highlights the policy measures in the Indian microfinance sector since 2011, documents best practices towards integrating health and microfinance, and proposes an agenda for moving forward: a) public health systems and institutions should take a proactive role to strengthen community participation leading to the sustainability of health programs, b) financial service providers should establish linkages with India’s National Rural Health Management (NRHM) to improve access to health care, and c) championing a research agenda looking at the impact and large scale effectiveness to better understand the factors that affect the work of MFIs and SHGs on health knowledge and behavior with active support from Indian public health policy planners.

Source: Digital Journal (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Health Care
Tags
Base of the Pyramid, microfinance, poverty alleviation, public health