NASHTA– Nutrition Support for TB: A Same-Day Delivery Implementation Project

Undernutrition is the leading risk factor for TB in India, with nearly half of all persons with TB (PwTB) being underweight at diagnosis. Underweight PwTB face a two-fold increased risk of mortality, with approximately one in three unfavorable outcomes directly attributable to undernutrition. While the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) provides nutritional interventions, such as energy-dense nutritional supplements (EDNS) and community-mobilized food baskets via the Ni-Kshay Mitra scheme, their real-world impact is severely limited by implementation delays. Currently, only ~2% of PwTB receive a food basket in the critical first month of treatment. A national analysis links early Ni-Kshay Mitra support to a 48% reduction in mortality (aOR 0.52), demonstrating that timing is crucial.

The central challenge is not whether to provide nutritional support, but how to deliver it on day one. The current system operates as a reactive chain where requests for support are raised only after diagnosis, leading to weeks of delay while waiting for donor matching.

The purpose of same-day delivery of nutritional support at TB diagnosis initiative is to flip this approach from reactive to proactive by pre-positioning food baskets and funds directly at clinics before diagnosis occurs. This ensures that nutritional support is ready and waiting for the patient on the exact day of diagnosis, closing the critical early-treatment gap.

We invite applications from qualified Indian organizations to implement and evaluate this 5-month pilot model.

indicates a required field.

Section I: Contact Details

Organization name

Organization’s registered address

Applicant type:

Indian nongovernmental organization legally registered with FCRA.

International organization legally registered in India.

For-profit organization with mandatory registrations (PAN, TAN, GST number) and fulfilling all statutory criteria to receive foreign funds.

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act number

Goods and Services Tax number, if applicable.

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number, if available (guidance for creating a UEI number to be provided).

Name and title of point of contact for applicant.

Mailing address of point of contact.

Telephone number of point of contact.

Email address of point of contact.

Confirm email

Name and title of authorized signatory for grant.

Section II: Organizational Eligibility

Note your organization’s ability to meet the following:

The chief executive of the organization is willing to sign an agreement and receive funds from JSI, the Washington-based partner.

Yes

Describe your organization’s recent (last 3 years) experience managing interventions aligned with the proposed scope of work or a similar scope of work.

(1,000-character limit)

Describe your recent experience collaborating with the Government of India, specifying your existing working relationships with the Central TB Division, State TB Cells, District Health Societies, and District TB Officers (DTOs). Detail how these relationships will enable your team to secure immediate administrative approvals, establish health facility access, and co-design operational workflows within routine NTEP service delivery.

(2,000-character limit)

Section III: Proposal Description

Provide a comprehensive statement of your organization’s strategy to execute the 'Procure-Assemble-Deliver' model for same-day nutritional support. Describe: your detailed methodology to establish up-front funding and local procurement mechanisms at healthcare facilities to bypass reactive donor-matching delays; how you will onboard, train, and manage MY Bharat (or equivalent community youth) volunteer cadres to maintain a clean, ready buffer of standard food baskets on-site; and how you will integrate proactive handovers into routine clinic workflows to ensure patients receive energy-dense nutritional supplements (EDNS) and food baskets on the exact calendar date of diagnosis. Detail your specific organizational roles, key deliverables, measurable process indicators, and how critical operational learnings will be synthesized into an NTEP-ready playbook for national scale-up.

(3,000-character limit)

Explain your operational protocol for inventory management, clean storage, and same-day delivery tracking at participating health facilities. Describe how your monitoring approach will utilize routine NTEP service delivery structures and existing Nikshay data fields (e.g., recording diagnosis date, baseline weight, and treatment initiation) without creating excessive administrative burden for facility staff. Outline how daily registers, weekly process logs, and community advisory feedback will be maintained to capture acceptability, feasibility, and operational barriers in real time.

(3,000-character limit)

Detail your organization’s track record in designing, executing, and evaluating community-engaged health delivery models, rapid supply chain/logistics pilots, or nutrition-focused public health programs. Highlight specific examples where your organization successfully mobilized community/youth volunteers or managed decentralized point-of-care delivery schemes.

(3,000-character limit)

Demonstrate your immediate operational readiness and organizational capacity to launch setup activities immediately upon award. Given the strict 5-month timeline, provide a robust risk mitigation plan addressing critical setup bottlenecks-such as procurement delays, space constraints for storage, volunteer dropouts, and facility-level coordination challenges, to safeguard implementation timelines and maintain target delivery rates.

(3,000-character limit)

Download RFA

NASHTA– Nutrition Support for TB: A Same-Day Delivery Implementation Project (PDF, 588.32 KB)