Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Achieving health and well-being are societal goals. In doing so efforts are required from health and other social sectors. Working together with health and other social sectors can bring solutions to many critical health-related problems. However, these different sectors not necessarily work together, mainly due to different reporting lines, scarce finances, inadequate training and not having the proper orientation. We in this research study the multi-sectoral Tobacco Control Programme, in a province in India. We aimed to use a method by which we can understand identify involved people & know how they working together by employing a Social Network Analysis. This analysis will map and measure the relationships between different stakeholders. We selected two districts, with a varied level of performance, one with good and one with poor implementation. Through a survey, we gathered information on socio-demographics, the contacts for implementers when they need information, any resources and decisions. The survey was administered to all sectors involved in the programme, for example, Health, Education, Police, Information & Broadcasting, local Govt., Municipal Departments & NGOs. We employed network analysis tools and found the good performing district had a very dense communication network, where people reciprocated to each other in terms of providing information or resources. We were also able to identify the sectors who participate in the programme very remotely and individuals and sectors who are very central to the programme. This research generates a method which can be used to improve collaboration and working across sectors, identifying weaker links and working to make them stronger. Hence moving towards the ultimate goal of improving the health and well-being of the society.