Uttar Pradesh

Our work in Uttar Pradesh supports intensive efforts by the state and central government to expand the coverage and quality of health services, with a focus on maternal and child health, and to address other key issues such as family planning, immunization, nutrition, infectious disease control, health system strengthening, sanitation, and agricultural systems.
Block Nutrition Checklist Sector Level Reviews in progress in Bharthai, India on September 17, 2020.

At a glance

  • Uttar Pradesh, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in India, has made continuous progress in recent years in reducing the number of women dying in childbirth, due to the efforts of the national and state governments.
  • We are committed to helping the state reach its goals not only in maternal and child health but also family planning; immunization; nutrition; control of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, lymphatic filariasis, acute encephalitis syndrome, and kala azar; health system strengthening; sanitation, and agricultural systems.
  • In 2012, two years after the launch of our partnership with the Bihar government to improve maternal and child health, we signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with the Government of Uttar Pradesh, which was renewed in 2019.
  • In 2013, in collaboration with our partners, we established the Uttar Pradesh Technical Support Unit (UP-TSU) to help strengthen the state government’s health, nutrition, and family planning efforts in the 100 poorest-performing blocks in 25 high-priority districts. Successful and sustainable interventions have since been scaled up across 75 districts and have transitioned to state government management.
  • We provide support in the form of research and evidence generation and funding for innovation and capacity building. We also support efforts to expand women’s economic empowerment and digital financial inclusion in the state.

Progress in health and development in Uttar Pradesh

In partnership with the Uttar Pradesh state government, we have contributed to various health and development efforts that have led to major gains at multiple levels, including those listed below.

Community level

  • Use of Village Health Nutrition Day as a platform for providing prenatal health care, family planning services, and nutrition services as well as appropriate reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (RMNCHN) counseling across the state.

  • Expansion of community health worker mentoring to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health service delivery.

  • Improved identification and tracking of high-risk pregnancies, along with referrals to facilities. For example, registration of pregnancies in the first trimester more than doubled, from 29 percent to 65 percent, between 2014 and 2019, and the number of women receiving prenatal care in the third trimester rose from 36 percent to 72 percent during the same period.

  • Improved home-based maternal and newborn care, including identification and tracking of low-birth-weight newborns.

  • Improved nutrition services, especially focusing on pregnant women, infants, and young children, through home visits and community-based Anganwadi centers. These nutrition efforts have led to substantial increases in behaviors and practices such as complementary feeding and the consumption of at least four food groups by children between 6 and 11 months in age.

Facility level

  • Increased rates of institutional deliveries, including through community outreach and investments in staffing levels, nurse training and mentoring, infrastructure, equipment, and commodities.

  • Integrated facility strengthening work into the national government’s quality improvement initiative, LaQshya, and strengthening of referral linkages through vertical integration approaches.

  • Increased availability of new contraceptives, expanded contraceptive choices, and the creation of a contraceptive specialist cadre.
An auxiliary nurse midwife hands out hand sanitizer and masks for a Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day Session in Uttar Pradesh, India. The camp provides routine immunization, family planning counseling, and ante natal care check-up, among others.
An auxiliary nurse midwife in Uttar Pradesh hands out hand sanitizer and masks.
Anganwadi workers weight a child at the Village Health Nutrition Day in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Anganwadi workers weigh a child on Village Health Nutrition Day in Uttar Pradesh.

Health system level

  • Improved human resources for health through reforms and innovations including the development of a new electronic human resources management system.

  • Stronger supply chain systems through the establishment of a self-sustaining autonomous corporation that acts as the central procurement agency for all drugs and equipment.

  • Expanded and improved use of data for decision-making through the development of a unified health digital platform and use of data audits and health dashboards.

More about our work in India

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The foundation’s office in Delhi works with India’s central and state governments and other partners to achieve our shared goals.

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