Norway-India partnership on health saving newborns

Established in 2006, the Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) has brought the issue of health of newborns higher up on India's health agenda and led to scaling up of child health services, according to evaluation findings.
The establishment of sick newborn care units at district hospitals and follow up of newborns at home under the initiative have saved many lives, the findings say.
Ambassador of Norway to India Eivind Homme emphasised that "one key reason for the good results is the very close cooperation between the two governments.
"NIPI has worked together with National Rural Health Mission since the beginning, and we are proud to continue these joint efforts and close dialogue also in the next phase of the programme."

Established in 2006 through a joint statement by the Prime Ministers of India and Norway, the vision of NIPI is to provide catalytic, strategic support that would make a vital and sustainable difference to scaling up of quality child health services in India under the NRHM.
The evaluation found that after six years, NIPI has largely achieved its goals.

Several of the activities introduced by NIPI have been scaled up across the four states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan through NRHM.
Some activities have even reached national level like home based newborn care where ASHAs visit newborns at home during the first six weeks of life.

Secretary in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Keshav Desiraju, said, "with opportunities NRHM provides to the public health system, it is important to learn from the findings that we heard today. Evaluations make us improve our programmes and achieve better results for the health of women and children in our country."
India will receive grants to the tune of Rs 250 crore from Norway in the five-year period for improving its rural healthcare services to further reduce child and maternal mortality.
The initiative is designed to facilitate states to improve delivery of child health services with efficient techno- managerial support structures for five years starting 2012.