India

The Real Medicine Foundation is pleased to announce that it is now in partnership with the World Bank’s Development Marketplace for our programs in India. The Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program that identifies and funds innovative, early stage development projects that are scalable and/or replicable, while also having high potential for development impact.

World Bank Press Release of Award Announcement

Photo: Michael Matheke-Fisher, RMF Country Director, India (left), Pratik Phadkule, RMF Program Manager (second from (left) recieve award from, Drew von Glahn, Team Leader of Development Marketplace (third from right), and Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director, India (extreme right)

The Real Medicine Foundation's India projects focus on bridging the gap between individuals in need of health or humanitarian assistance and their access to such assistance. Everyday, our team of 66 local women work in 600 villages of the Jhabua, Alirajpur, Barwani, Khandwa, and Khargone districts of Madhya Pradesh to increase awareness on malnutrition, mobilize communities to increase demand for malnutrition services, and strengthen the capacity of frontline workers such as Anganwadis. Our strategies not only help individual children, but also strengthen existing systems so that they are ready to identify and combat malnutrition.

Since our program began in 2010, RMF has:

• Successfully ensured the treatment of 2,157 children at Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres
• Improved 24,822 children suffering from Moderate and Severe Acute Malnutrition
• Trained over 329,780 individuals on malnutrition prevention, awareness, and treatment

Real Medicine Foundation hopes that by engaging with Development Marketplace, our staff will be able to increase the awareness and reach of our program, while benefitting from the forum for the exchange of ideas and experience that the Development Marketplace provides.  As we meet with other successful Marketplace organizations, we will integrate what we learn to continuously make our Malnutrition Eradication Program more efficient, effective, and locally sustainable, and to increase the population we reach.

RMF’s works extremely closely with the Government of Madhya Pradesh, and thanks them for their constant support and partnership, which has empowered this Program to succeed. In the long term, our goal is to create an evidence-based model for the MP government to take over, creating a scale only the government is capable of sustaining. Programs such as the National Rural Health Mission and Integrated Child Development Scheme are unique in the world in their coverage and mandate; RMF strives to close the gap between individuals not utilizing these services. We believe that while the rates of childhood malnutrition remain at their current level, the government needs the assistance of grassroots organizations such as ours to increase the effectiveness of their flagship schemes, and increase community ownership of these programs at the village level.  

We are honored to provide this, and look forward to increasing our efforts to improve the health of the region as a result of our Development Marketplace involvement.

Link to World Bank article on 20 India finalists

Link to World Bank Press Release of Award Announcement