In 2005, Suneeta Sharma frowned as she looked at the data on poor women accessing reproductive health services in Agra, a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India.

Suneeta, office director for Futures Group India, began a five-year process with under the USAID | Innovations in Family Planning Services Technical Assistance Project to uncover what was preventing poor women from accessing reproductive health services and determine how to reverse the troubling trend.

Early on, Suneeta met Abha, a 25-year-old pregnant woman who lived in a poor neighborhood in Agra. Abha discovered she would need a C-section to deliver her baby safely, but there were no affordable alternatives for a poor pregnant woman. Suneeta’s team discovered that cost was a huge factor preventing women like Abha from accessing care.

To solve the problem, Suneeta’s team piloted a voucher program in Abha’s neighborhood. Their idea: give women who live below the poverty line vouchers to receive health services at private hospitals. A government agency would reimburse the hospitals for the services.

Suneeta’s team faced considerable barriers: not only were there resource issues, but private hospitals were opposed to being reimbursed below the market rate. Using Futures Group forecasting tools, Suneeta showed policymakers how they would save in the long-run by providing safe and quality reproductive health services.

With policymakers convinced, Suneeta’s team turned to leaders at the local teaching hospitals, who were highly respected by the private hospitals. They highlighted a benefit of the program:  it would increase the number of people seeking services – something the hospitals were desperate for.

After the program launched, Abha learned she was expecting her second child – again facing delivery via C-section. This time, she obtained a voucher to give birth at a private hospital for free.

With their on-the-ground relationships and local insight, Suneeta’s team built a program that made it possible for poor women like Abha to receive free, quality reproductive health care. Six years after their pilot, their program has now been taken to scale. 

“This is why I joined Futures Group – to find long-term, sustainable solutions to the public health challenges facing nations,” said Suneeta.