Strengthening support mechanisms for performance improvement of Accredited Social Health Activists in Uttar Pradesh

Introduction The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005. One of the key components of the NRHM is the identification and training of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) for each village in the country. They have undergone several rounds of training and received additional training like 10-day training on child survival in Uttar Pradesh state. Despite these training programmes, significant gaps remain in their performance and their ability to translate “knowledge to practice”. Recognising that improving performance of ASHAs is critical to achieving the outcomes of NRHM, the USAID-funded IntraHealth International led Vistaar project, as part of technical assistance to the Uttar Pradesh government, planned assessments to identify (1) gaps between the desired and actual performance of ASHAs, (2) key factors affecting ASHA performance, and (3) on-the-job support, capacity building and mentoring needs of ASHAs.