India's Avahan Program
2016
This case study describes lessons from an HIV prevention program in India that scaled-up community-based prevention efforts targeting high-risk populations. Avahan (“Call to Action”) in Sanskrit, was a Gates Foundation-funded program launched in 2003 to help scale-up HIV interventions in six of India’s states with the highest HIV prevalence and along national trucking routes. Since India’s most at-risk affected populations were concentrated among marginalized, stigmatized, and criminalized groups (female sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and people who inject drugs), Avahan focused on a community-based approach to reduce HIV risk and increase use of health services. This case describes process measures to assess Avahan’s reach, but controversy remains about the scale of impact due to lack of prospective evaluation.
This case study is part of Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health, a collection of case studies produced by the Center for Global Development that profiles 18 remarkable cases in which large-scale efforts to improve health in low- and middle-income countries succeeded, and 4 examples of promising interventions that fell short of their health targets when scaled-up in real world conditions. The cases featured on the website are shortened versions of the respective book chapters in the print edition.
Source:
Glassman A, Temin M. India’s Avahan Program. Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health. Center for Global Development 2016. http://millionssaved.cgdev.org/case-studies/indias-avahan-program.