Norway- India Partnership Initiative (NIPI)

The Government of Orissa is pleased to announce the launch of the Norway-India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) for promoting child health under National Rural Health Mission in the State of Orissa.  A   Memorandum of Agreement has been signed on 13th of December, 2007 towards this.

The Norway- India Partnership Initiative is an outcome of commitment by the Hon’ able Prime Minister of Norway  and the Hon’ able Prime Minister of India, focusing on the issue of reducing child mortality and improving child health to attain the Millennium Development Goal 4 by the year 2015. Norway has contributed USD 80 million over five years for this purpose to five states of Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These States together constitute 40 percent of India’s population and contribute almost 60% of child deaths in India. The NIPI activities is for five years (2007-2012) corresponding the duration of the NRHM. 

The inputs would complement the national efforts and stimulate acceleration of NRHM implementation for MDG 4 by providing flexible, catalytic & strategic support to the NIPI focus State initiatives to improve Child health and related maternal health service delivery quality and access.

The activities under NIPI are put into operation through UN organizations like UNICEF, WHO and United Nation’s Office for Project Services (UNOPS). While UNOPS is a local fund agency and operates through the NIPI Secretariat, UNICEF and WHO have a grant of US$ 20 million and 10 million each respectively for program implementation in the five focused states. Many of the recent initiatives of UNICEF in child health sector in Orissa are funded by NIPI.

Aims & Objectives
            A decade back, Orissa had highest infant mortality rate (IMR) in India. With sustained effort by the Government of Orissa, child health indicators have shown improvement, but extra efforts are needed to achieve the MDG 4.
             NIPI aims at accelerating the Child Health interventions:

Core Interventions
The core interventions of NIPI are: Capacity building of frontline workers in home based newborn and child care and community mobilization; Institutional strengthening at block and district level to meet the expanding requirements related to quality child and related maternal health service delivery.

Complimenting these, NIPI will support the state and national governments in developing and optimizing a Management Information System on Child Health and related maternal health.
The Partnership is deeply committed to equity-driven, gender-sensitive, and pro-poor principles approach and it would endeavour to draw upon and enhance the strong equity rubric of the NRHM.

Institutional mechanism
The institutional mechanism of NIPI is led by Joint Steering Committee with Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of India as Chairperson and the Norway Ambassador to India as the Co-Chair. Additionally, there are representatives of Government of India, Government of Norway, WHO, UNICEF and the NIPI focus States.

At the state level, activities under NIPI will be implemented by the Orissa State Health & Family Welfare Society, chaired by Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Government of Orissa. 

The Government of Orissa is committed to support this enthusiastic initiative to realize its vision to improve the child health status in Orissa and India.