In June 2018, RIST and CSIS came together to kickstart the “Indian States Health Innovation Partnership”. The primary goal of this project is to strengthen health outcomes in India by methodically identifying which Indian states are ready for innovative partnerships with international institutions and broadcasting these opportunities publicly to spur future partnerships. In the first phase of this project, we developed a clearer picture of India’s state-level health care reform priorities and identified specific areas for potential partnership across four categories: capacity building, organizations delivery, financing, and specific health conditions.
The research team carried out in-person interviews and surveys of health care leaders in the public and private sectors in the 15 largest Indian states and conducted desk research for another 14 Indian states on healthcare delivery gaps. In this phase of the project, the research team interviewed a diverse group of stakeholders who have successfully formed partnerships with Indian state governments in the past. The second phase of this project provided guidelines to help stakeholders—institutions, innovators, commercial actors, researchers, or practitioners—understand the bureaucratic, political, and administrative complexities of Indian states.
Over the course of the project, the CSIS-Duke team developed two reports, established actionable connections for future partnerships, and continue to publish useful resources to track health policy regulations coming out of Indian state on weekly basis. The first report, Indian State Priorities for Health Innovation Partnerships, serves as a guide for external actors looking to identify partnerships to improve health care in India by providing a clearer picture of India’s state-level health care reform priorities at the sub-national level. The second report, Engaging India: Guide to Developing Health Care Partnerships with States, is designed to help stakeholders—institutions, innovators, commercial actors, researchers, or practitioners—understand the bureaucratic, political, and administrative complexities of Indian states and, as such, serves as a guidepost for organizations who seek to work with Indian state governments.
The team also established relationships with key stakeholders—both government and private sector—for future partnerships. As an example, the team identified interest across state government stakeholders and health care innovators and entrepreneurs to work together on tuberculosis (TB) related issues in India. As a result, the team developed a proposal for a two-day workshop to bring together key stakeholders to collectively eradicate TB.
With RIST’s support, CSIS actively maintains a database of timely health-related news on their Engaging Indian States website. The site provides a comprehensive tool for businesses, research institutions, policymakers, and journalists who seek greater insight into the potential for engagement with India’s subnational governments and enables readers to follow state health policy and regulatory changes.
We aim to leverage insight from this project to further examine the interventions that will have the most meaningful impact on healthcare delivery. Our aim is to both understand and help foster partnerships most conducive to yielding beneficial health outcomes – actively working to secure new partnerships between Indian health firms and global partners. Through this work, we hope to develop a sustainable platform that serves connects health stakeholders with the resources and partnerships from across the globe that enables them to succeed.
