Independent Validation Exercise for NITI Aayog’s Health Outcomes Index 2018
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog spearheaded the Health Index initiative to bring about transformational change in achieving desirable health outcomes. “Healthy States, Progressive India,” the report on the first round of the Health Index, measured the annual performance of the States and Union Territories (UTs) in this regard. It ranked states based on incremental change, provided their performance status, and helped identify specific areas of improvement. NITI Aayog was committed to establishing the Health Index as an annual systematic tool to bring about the much-desired optimal population health outcomes.
NITI Aayog engaged Sambodhi as a third-party verification and validation agency to conduct an independent study of the state’s submission on select indicators identified in the health sector. The validation process led to calculating the state’s individual scores according to a predefined methodology, based on which rankings were assigned.
This NITI Aayog’s initiative to roll out the performance index on healthcare and education was envisioned to bring about the much-required improvements in social sector outcomes, which had not kept pace with this country’s economic growth. It was meant to capture the annual incremental progress of the states. The results also propelled action to improve data collection and performance monitoring mechanisms. Sambodhi was appointed as the validation agency responsible for independently reviewing and analyzing the healthcare sector’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).