Independent Assessor for Maternal & Neonatal Health Impact Bond in India

Development impact bonds are unique, public–private partnerships that leverage market forces to improve social welfare by repaying those who provide the bonds’ initial working capital based on results. Several organizations—including Merck for Mothers, the U.S. Agency for International Development, UBS Optimus Foundation, and Palladium—have partnered to deploy the world’s first health development impact bond, the Utkrisht Impact Bond. This partnership was developed to improve the quality of maternal care in Rajasthan, India, by helping 440 small health care organizations enhance services, meet new government quality standards, and adhere to these standards over time. In particular, these stakeholders seek to increase the number of private facilities that meet accreditation standards for safe delivery.  Mathematica will contribute to this work as an independent assessor to verify the facilities’ adherence to the different requirements. In this role, Mathematica will work with stakeholders to develop and implement a plan to sample a subset of facilities to verify outcomes; to monitor data from sampled facilities; and to develop internal reports to summarize progress, lessons learned, and areas for improvement.