Dr. Hemant Shah Profiled as a Global Leader in Maternal and Newborn Health

Dr. Hemant Shah, a member of the Team Based Goals and Incentives Scale X Design Accelerator team, was recently profiled as a global leader in maternal and newborn health on the Maternal Health Task Force blog. He has extensive experience with reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in the Bihar state in India. He has served as a maternal health expert in the Integrated Family Health Initiative project and has successfully led quality improvement activities in health facilities in Bihar state.

With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Shah is providing technical support to the government of Bihar, one of India’s poorest states, affected with high maternal and infant mortality rates. Despite the difficult challenges within the context of the Bihar state, Dr. Shah and team are focused on three categories: improving quality of care in the facilities; building the capacity of frontline workers to improve services at community level; and working on health system issues like supply chain management, human resources, and more.

Dr. Shah can attribute his success to several factors. First, his technical knowledge but also being able to bring stakeholders together and taking responsibility for failure instead of blaming team members. When a leader himself or herself takes responsibility it builds the confidence of the team that their leader is also ready to try his or her best.

Thanks to Dr. Shah and team for not only the knowledge and skills improvement they have achieved, but also for inspiring behavior and cultural change.

“From the SDG point of view, one of the qualities required in a leader is perseverance, because achieving the goals is not going to happen in the next one or two years. If you consistently pursue the things with your all, honest efforts, sooner or later, you will get the results.” -Dr. Hemant Shah