Oct 17, 2022
With the support of Swasti, spearheaded the alliance as part of its long-standing work to enhance comprehensive primary health care in India. Other founding Alliance members include the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and LGT Venture Philanthropy. Based on principles of equity, quality, and affordability, CPHC is an approach to health and well-being centered on the needs and preferences of individuals, families, and communities. In 2018, the Government of India introduced Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs), its flagship program to provide CPHC and universal health coverage. The Alliance was formed to ensure that CPHC reaches its full potential in India. To make comprehensive primary health care a reality there are many challenges that need to beovercome. These include: size and scale of the challenge, lack of comprehensiveness in program design and implementation, and fragmented and insufficient collaboration among various stakeholders leading to isolated efforts in different geographies. Given the comprehensive nature of the ambition for CPHC and the complex set of stakeholders who need to work together, a need was felt to bring a complex set of stakeholders to collaborate around a central idea with a multiplicity of approaches - leveraging the relative strengths of each stakeholder. While the Government is one strong player, its focus on Maternal and Child Health and now shifting focus to non-communicable diseases, is still not comprehensive primary care, albeit an important part. An Alliance can bring the public sector, private sector, civil society, donors, philanthropic organizations, and individuals together and create a canvas of vision, ideas, models, approaches, and tools that can be shaped together and used based on context, purpose and stakeholder requirements; thereby not seeking homogeneity, but a range of approaches, which learn from each other but have elements that are best suited for impact.