Ananya GIS, Enhancing Health Service Delivery with GIS Mapping in Bihar, India

Abstract

The scale, complexity, pace, emphasis on information dissemination and monitoring requirements of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Ananya program to improve maternal and child health and reduce infectious diseases in Bihar, India, made it imperative that information management be integrated and automated in a way that reports data geographically for diverse audiences. In response to this need, a GIS application was developed to spatially associate and depict public and program-specific information to support planning, analysis, and decision making. Development and implementation of the Ananya GIS has followed a participatory and phased approach. Ananya's employment of GIS indicates the tremendous potential that GIS technology holds for upgrading public health service management, delivery, and transparency.