mahdin.hossain@tufts.edu
This summer, I had the immense privilege of joining the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice on their health service delivery redesign portfolio. My project is in Meghalaya: a breathtaking mountainous state in the northeastern corner of India. The World Bank has been closely collaborating with the State Government of Meghalaya to improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes. As a researcher on the process evaluation team, I am helping to evaluate interventions implemented in the past few years to bring mothers and babies to high-quality care at the right place and the right time.
My journey to India began at the Bank’s head office in the nation’s capital, Delhi. Here, I was finally able to meet the rest of our wonderful evaluation team in-person. Our time together in Delhi was to prepare for a key part of our evaluation process: participatory analysis. Our team in Meghalaya had been collecting qualitative interviews over the past few months, and now we were pulling out early insights to present to and discuss with stakeholders.
Our team then relocated to Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya, where we continued our work with colleagues at the local Project Management Unit. With an extra day, our team decided to take another colleague and me, who had never been to Meghalaya befor,e to see one of the clinics that has improved with these interventions. Their state is built atop mountains — even Shillong is a hill station. Driving around Meghalaya, though scary as you’re swinging along the edge of mountains, was unbelievably beautiful. The mountain peaks jut out above the clouds around you, and everywhere you look, there are gorgeous waterfalls into valleys you can’t even see the bottom of. Every five minutes, you want to stop and take even more photos.
But the most incredible part of this journey truly was seeing the clinic. The medical officer in charge showed us around the facility, quiet except for the beautiful cries of newborns. He brought us to their new Operating Theatre, and hearing about how women from the local district can now receive lifesaving C-sections was the most joyous feeling. Physically seeing how the work I was doing was literally saving women’s and babies’ lives was a feeling unlike any other.
Finally, consultation day arrived. In contrast to the current American political climate of reducing public health funding, here was a room full of government officials who care so deeply about the health of their population that they are throwing everything into improving their people’s lives. With a community so dedicated to empowering and uplifting one another, it is no wonder that the inspiring work being done in Meghalaya is a revolutionary example in closing the equity gap in accessible high-quality services between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries.
This summer was one of the greatest experiences of my life as I pursued my immense passion for improving health for everyone. I cannot wait to go back to Meghalaya one day and continue working across the globe.
