India and Norway have decided to continue with the joint attempts to reduce infant and maternal mortality and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the second phase of the Norway-India Partnership Initiative (NIPI) in this regard.

Under the second phase, the partnership will try to improve and scale up quality continuum of care interventions at community and facility level in NIPI and selected non-NIPI districts. It will establish a mechanism for sustainable institutional collaboration between Norwegian and Indian public and private institutions in areas related to women’s and children’s health. The joint effort will also facilitate dialogue on global health between Norway and India.

The MoU for the second phase was signed at the Joint Steering Committee meeting held in New Delhi recently in the presence of Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad. The first phase of the partnership was initiated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Norway counterpart Jens Stoltenberg in 2006 towards achieving Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.

The programme, designed to improve delivery of infant and maternal health services in select Indian states under the umbrella of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) now enters its second phase, which will run from 2013-2017. Funding for the second phase is approximately US$ 50 million.

Ambassador of Norway to India Elvind S Homme said the success of the first phase towards contributions to the NRHM for scaling up of home-based new born care, sick and new born care units and techno-managerial support has been very encouraging. “With the phase II in place now, we hope to contribute to the overall NRHM goals in the country,” he said.

NIPI completed its first phase of operation in 2012 in the focus states of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and Rajasthan. Based on the experiences gained and results achieved since the beginning of NIPI in 2006, the duration of the programme is now extended to coincide with the new NRHM plan 2013-2017. NIPI phase II will continue in the same states of the first phase.