Health at the Base of the Pyramid – h@bop

PSP-One and HUL are now collaborating on this Health at the Base of the Pyramid effort, or Shakti h@BoP. As part of this collaboration, PSP-One is assisting HUL in the development of a strategy to design pilot interventions to be implemented in three districts in the state Uttar Pradesh, focusing on two key maternal and child health areas:

• Family Planning – birth spacing
• Child Health – diarrhea

The health products for family planning may include condoms and oral contraceptives (OC), and for child health oral rehydration salts (ORS) for diarrhea. This may be expanded subsequently. The main components of the pilot interventions will be:

• Partnerships with manufacturers of the health products (such as condoms and ORS) to be introduced through Shakti
• Training of the Shakti Entrepreneurs on use and promotion of the health products
• Market-building activities to promote and increase use of the health products
• Linkages with local NGOs and/or health facilities for referral
• Monitoring and evaluation of health impact on the communities and financial and social impact on Shakti Entrepreneurs

PSP-One’s main role in this collaboration is to broker partnerships with the manufacturers, provide technical assistance in the pilot design, training of SEs and market-building activities, and monitor and evaluate the pilots. All pilot implementation costs, including the market building activities, will be covered by HUL and the manufacturing partners.

Different from the currently prevailing healthcare delivery mechanisms in rural India, which usually rely on free, and subsidized/socially marketed products, the Shakti health products will be 100% commercial but appropriately priced for rural markets. The Shakti h@BoP pilot is attempting to create a fully commercial and self-sustaining model for delivering health products in hard to access rural areas. If the pilots are proven successful, HUL plans to gradually scale them up to the entire Shakti network, reaching a remarkable size of the rural Indian population with an affordable and sustainable supply of health products, without any further donor or government investment.