FRONTIERS PROJECT
Strengthening Financial Sustainability Through Integration of Voluntary Counseling and Testing Services with Other Reproductive Health Services

FRONTIERS worked with the Child In Need Institute (CINI) to integrate the delivery of reproductive health and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services in response to concerns over a lack of service coordination between the two separate centers and the financial sustainability of operations. CINI developed a monitoring system designed to capture utilization, cost, and revenue data to examine whether integration of services would increase the number of clients served and improve the financial position of the program.

Provision of reproductive health services increased from 12 services per clinic day in the nine months prior to integration to 25 services per clinic day in the first nine months postintegration. The corresponding figures for VCT service provision were four services per day prior to integration and 22 services per day subsequent to integration. In addition, on average, 14 of the 37 daily clients (38 percent) received both reprouctive health and VCT services in the postintegration period. When registration fees were compared to the variable cost of service provision, there was a small positive contribution margin earned (US$0.07) indicating that the provision of integrated services added more to program revenues than to program costs.

Integrating services was associated with increased provision of services and improved financial sustainability. The study also demonstrates that the capacity of CINI to carry out economic evaluations of their programs was improved as a result of training in economic analysis and operations research.

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Location

West Bengal, India

Duration

May 2005–December 2006

Population Council researchers

M.E. Khan, Pradeep Panda

Non-Council collaborators

Rumeli Das, Kaushik Biswas (Child In Need Institute)

Rick Homan (Family Health International)

Donor

US Agency for International Development

Publications/Resources
Council researchers' names appear in boldface type. 

2007
Das, Rumeli, Kaushik Biswas, Pradeep Panda, M.E. Khan, and Rick Homan. "Strengthening financial sustainability through integration of voluntary counseling and testing services with other reproductive health services (India)," FRONTIERS Final Report. Washington, DC: Population Council. (PDF)

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See Also

• India
• Reproductive Health
• FRONTIERS India
• FRONTIERS FP/HIV Integration
• FRONTIERS Technical Assistance/Institution Building
• FRONTIERS Economic Evaluation

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