Public finance management and data availability for nutrition financing in India

Kapur, Avani; Shukla, Ritwik

doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004705

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…One of the major challenges of costing studies is the absence of disaggregated financial data ( 28 ). To address this challenge, a series of clear assumptions must be used and disclosed to ensure studies can be replicable.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods and Lessons From Costing a Large mHealth Intervention at Scale in India

Shukla

Kapur²

2022

Front. Public Health

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The use of mobile devices to deliver public health interventions is rapidly increasing, particularly in low resource settings. Despite their proliferation, several mHealth interventions in developing countries fail to reach geographical scale, and long-term sustainability for most remains uncertain. There is a need to cost for such programs, to enable better planning and budgeting and tailor programs as required. Cost estimates can contribute to a more informed debate on resource allocation priorities and help make choices clearer for policymakers. This paper has two main objectives: (1) present a detailed protocol on determining the costs of a large national mHealth job aid and behavior change communication tool known as Integrated Child Development Services - Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) in India, and (2) to present lessons for policymakers on how to ensure financial planning for scaling mHealth interventions. The study uses the Activity Based Costing—Ingredients (ABC-I) method. The major advantage of the ABC-I method is the clarity it brings to costs for each input and activity, across levels and geographies. It also accounts for indirect costs. There are five key lessons while costing for mHealth programs. First, that there are many activities and ingredients that must be budgeted for and discussed while planning and implementing mHealth programs. Second, the ABC-I method described in this paper provides great clarity on costs, yet its major limitation is the availability of data, which must be mitigated with the careful use of assumptions. Third, mHealth technology life cycles have financial implications which must be accounted for. Fourth, determining cost locations and all sources of funding including non-government sources is crucial. Fifth, since costing estimates are subject to a set of assumptions, a disaggregation of costs allows for scenario-building, which is useful while planning ahead and accounting for program changes. The evidence generated can be used for more informed debate on resource allocation priorities, given competing priorities in low- and middle-income countries.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods and Lessons From Costing a Large mHealth Intervention at Scale in India

Shukla

Kapur²

2022

Front. Public Health

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“…This paper reports the application of the first two phases of the method—the planning and allocation of funds for AMB. This has been done due to a lack of publicly available data on disbursements and expenditures (Kapur & Shukla 2021; Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability CBGA, 2017), and the depth of issues with planning and allocations which require focus.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nutrition budgets are spread across multiple ministries and departments and often are integrated within other sectors or programmes (Kapur & Shukla, 2021; Lamstein et al, 2016). Hence, tracking and disaggregating budgets for nutrition are challenging.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving nutrition budgeting in health sector plans: Evidence from India's anaemia control strategy

Saini

Shukla

Joe

et al. 2022

Maternal & Child Nutrition

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In India, 15 nutrition interventions are delivered and financed through the National Health Mission (NHM). Programmatic know-how, however, on tracking nutrition budgets in health sector plans is limited. Following the four phases of the budget cycle-planning, allocations, disbursements and expenditure, this paper presents a new method developed by the authors to track nutrition budgets within health sector plans. Using the example of the Anemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) or Anemia Free India strategy, it reports preliminary findings on the application of the first two phases of the method, that is, to track and act for improved planning and allocations, covering 12 states. The paper lists out the budget heads, cost norms and developed tools to plan adequately. Supportive action was undertaken through sharing trends and trainings for AMB's budgeting to create opportunities for improvements. It was observed that the AMB budget increased over 3 years despite the COVID situation. It increased from INR 6184 million in FY 2019-2020 to INR 6293 million, a 2% increase in FY 2020, and to INR 7433 million, an 18% increase in FY 2021-2022. The difference in allocations and planned budgets were low (16%, 4% and 11%, respectively) while the difference in required budgets and planned budgets were significant but reduced consistently (41%, 31% and 22%, respectively). The paper concludes that the methods adopted for tracking and acting for improved nutrition budgets helped in informing national and state governments regarding yearly trends. Such methods can be effective and be developed for other nutrition interventions.

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Public finance management and data availability for nutrition financing in India

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

Methods and Lessons From Costing a Large mHealth Intervention at Scale in India

Methods and Lessons From Costing a Large mHealth Intervention at Scale in India

Improving nutrition budgeting in health sector plans: Evidence from India's anaemia control strategy

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