The Union Health Minister, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad chaired the meeting of the Partners in Population and Development (PPD) at Beijing, China today. India is the chair of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) and co-chair of the Partnership of Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH).
Shri Azad said that there are only 26 months left before the MDGs are to be achieved, and discussions are already underway to develop the post-2015 development agenda.
The Health Minister highlighted four priorities that can be taken forward both for the MDGs and the post-2015 agenda. These are position population health at the heart of sustainable development, with effective investments across the Reproductive, Maternal, New-born and child health and adolescent continuum of care; use multi-sector, and multi-actor, approaches to promote health and sustainable development; set goals and drive progress based on local realities, taking into account principles of equity, human rights and sustainability; and bring new focus on health needs of adolescents which have hitherto received scant attention.
Shri Azad said that India has appreciated the importance of investing in health systems and has made strategic and massive investments to the tune of 15 billion USD since the launch of its flagship programme, the National Rural Health Mission in 2005.India launched 2 years ago a programme that guarantees every infant and woman delivering in a public health institution absolutely free and cashless services with an assured provision of free diagnostics, drugs and diet besides free to and fro transport. Our experience shows that elimination of out-of-pocket expenses is a key driver for increasing institutional care, the Health Minister noted.
Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad quoted that a new Global Investment Framework for Women’s and Children’s Health,developed by the WHO and PMNCH shows that investing in women’s and children’s health, in addition to saving lives, can generate up to a nine-fold return in social and economic benefits. These benefits result from an expanded, healthier workforce, increased labour- participation and productivity, improved- domestic savings and increased GDP– in addition to the positive social benefits of healthier families and communities.
Shri Azad highlighted that there is a need to build dynamic and flexible relationships with national, regional and local governments, civil society and local communities and international NGOs, international financial institutions and donor agencies, UN organizations, the private sector (profit and non-profit) and academics and educational institutions.
The Health Minister emphasized on measurements. He said that what gets measured gets done. In post-2015 development debate, there is a well-deserved emphasis on the need for local measurements, based on local targets. Capacities must be built across levels to optimally gather and intelligently use data to both track results and initiate mid-course corrective action. Measurements need to take into account the progress made towards realising rights and equity, he noted.
The Minister said that adolescents account for nearly one fifth of the world’s population and can give a new momentum to promoting the health agenda. Therefore, programmes and policies to comprehensively address the health and development needs of adolescents should now become a priority.
Shri Azad concluded that all must come together to rethink the approach to improved health and development of mothers, children and youth.
PPD is an important inter-country alliance to promote population health and PMNCH is a multi-constituency partnership to promote the continuum of care – across life stages and levels of healthcare – for reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health. PMNCH brings together governments, multilateral organizations, donors, NGOs, the private sector, health care professionals and academics.
