USAID announces $2.25 mn health bond for Rajasthan

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday announced launch of $2.25 million health-impact bond, USAID amdinistrator Mark Green announced here on the sidelines of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES).

He said the agency was also announcing $1 million to create awareness about Tuberculosis (TB) to help India in its fight against the disease.

The health-impact bond -- the Rajasthan Development Impact Bond -- is aimed at improving maternal and newborn health in Rajasthan.

The bond is for improving the quality of health services in private health facilities.

The USAID will pay back the investment only if the private providers achieve certain concrete results.

It believes that the money will increase life-saving supplies and trained staff, and the improved ability to address complications in labour, saving lives of as many as 10,000 women and newborns over five years.

This novel pay-for-success approach is a great value for US taxpayers, because it unlocks private capital and resources from local government to save lives, he said.

Mark Green said $1 million effort for TB awareness would support Prime Minister Modi's ultimate goal of securing a TB-free India by 2025.

India has the world's highest incidence of TB, with 2.8 million cases annually, and accounts for more than a quarter of the global TB burden.

USAID has supported the TB programme of the Indian government since 1998, and has invested more than $140 million to strengthen the capacity of national, state, and district-level TB programmes. USAID has also introduced new tools and approaches to reach, cure, and prevent TB in India successfully.

The US aid agency also announced another $1.5 million for the Women connect challenge for closing digital gender divide. "Of the 800 million people that still go to bed hungry every night women are disproportionately affected. However women are also uniquely positioned to be part of the solution ending hunger," said a USAID statement said.

It added that the $2 million Feed the Future competition 2018 is designed to lift up and mentor female entrepreneurs in Africa.

--IANS

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