Welcome to Indian Health Observatory :
The Context: India is witnessing a major effort at strengthening public health systems in the form of the National Rural Health Mission. The goal of this mission is to lead to the attainment of a much higher level of health for its people. This it would achieve by a significant improvement in public health expenditures, by a better delivery of public health services, and by promotion of healthy life styles and convergent action on the social determinants of health. One of the major challenges the Mission faces is capacity development. Capacity development is needed for enabling communities , service providers and health administrators, to make and implement locale specific, evidence based and outcome oriented health plans. One important aid to such a massive capacity building effort is the creation of the National Health Observatory.
Aims: The Indian Health Observatory aims to be:
a) A tool meant for use by planners and decision makers for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of health planning and for making decentralized health planning a reality.
b) A knowledge repository for use by researchers and academicians and practitioners of public health.
c) A record of what is happening in the health sector in the states.
d) An access to communities for knowing about government health plans and programmes, which would be useful for social audit of the progress of health programmes.
e) A vehicle for promotion of networking between individuals and institutions working to improve the outcomes of health systems.
f) A focal point in the identification, documentation and dissemination of knowledge and experiences in health systems across countries and Indian states.
g) A channel for identifying and drawing in technical assistance.
h) A forum for sharing the outputs of technical assistance projects that are completed and to provide information on those that are ongoing , including the work of the National Health Systems Resource Center’s
Building the Observatory: The NHSRC hosts this observatory, as part of its function of being providing a single window for technical support. One of our key partners and inspiration for building the framework of this observatory is the Indian office of the World Health Organization(WHO). The Observatory is not a stand alone site of information. Wherever possible it provides linkages to other sites which serve a similar purpose, and thus avoids duplication, while increasing ease of access. The Observatory is interactive. All institutions and individuals are welcomed to correspond and to contribute information. The Observatory needs to be built collectively and we welcome the participation and ownership of more and more institutions in this effort. Work on the observatory has just begun. There are many miles to go.