Evaluation of the Sky Social Franchising Model in Uttar Pradesh

The “Matrika” project was funded by MSD for Mothers and implemented by two implementing partners- Pathfinder International and World Health Partners (WHP). The project’s aimed to increase access to and use of basic obstetric care, emergency obstetric care, health care and family planning services. There were two major components to the project, the first was the establishment of a social franchise network that was made up of private health providers at various levels who were encouraged to forge links with the public sector and the second component was a programme of training, designed to improve the clinical skills of health providers in both the private and public sector. The Sky social franchise network had three level of service providers: 1) SkyCare Promoters at the community level, 2) SkyHealth Providers consisting of AYUSH practitioners and 3) Franchise Clinics at the highest level providing safe delivery services and emergency obstetric care. The impact evaluation was carried out in a Baseline and End-line study. The impact evaluation used quasi-experimental design wherein the three arms were –
• Group A contains clusters with a SkyHealth or a SkyCare provider in the three intervention districts.
• Group B was also taken from the three intervention districts but contained clusters with no SkyHealth or SkyCare Centers.
• Group C was taken from neighboring districts that do not have any social franchise network operating within them.
In total, 180 study clusters were selected, spread equally across Group A (60 clusters), Group B (60 clusters), and Group C (60 clusters). Sample size of 3600 women for HH survey, 450 interviews for health provider survey, 900 family pictorial diary and 29 health facilities for Quality of Care tool out of which 10 Direct Observation of birth were conducted in 25 health facilities.