Focusing on global health issues, India and Norway sign Letter of Intent for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals

New Delhi, September 29: It’s very interesting to notice about how the health ministry of India is evolving. After JP Nadda took over the seat of Health Minister, he has been able to bring in about major changes in the precarious health condition of the country. To improve further health services, India has signed a Letter of Intent with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway to extend the cooperation within health sector through the Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) for a period of three years starting from 2018.

 

Through this letter, the cooperation between India and Norway will continue to be aligned with the development goals of the Indian Government as outlined in its National Health Policy 2017 for achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The cooperation shall focus on global health issues of common interest.

The partnership shall also include areas related to reproductive, maternal, new-born, child, adolescent health and health system strengthening, and shall build on experiences from NIPI phase I and II. The cooperation will continue to focus on innovative, catalytic and strategic support, taking the Indian government’s Intensification Plan for Accelerated Maternal and Child Survival in India as the starting point.

The governments of Norway and India had agreed in 2006 to collaborate towards achieving MDG 4 to reduce child mortality based on commitments made by the two Prime Ministers. The partnership was based on India's health initiative, the National Health Mission (NHM), and aimed at facilitating rapid scale-up of quality child and maternal health services in four high focus states - Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The main activities in Phase I (2006-2012) were home-based new born care (HBNC), Yashoda through state health system, establishing Sick Newborn Care Units (SNCU), techno managerial support, and providing strategic support for immunization and Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiatives.

Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) through its work in the last ten years (2007-2017) has resulted in newer initiatives. In addition to trying out innovations, NIPI has also supported NHM by providing credible technical support in the five states and at national level. This has resulted in development and release of multiple policies and guidelines for the NHM.