The World Bank has approved $152-million credit to improve healthcare systems in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous State.
The funds will support the Uttar Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project which, for one, focuses on scaling up the management and accountability systems of the Department of Health. It aims at improving the planning capacities, information flows and data inputs to enable policy-makers to better monitor and manage service delivery in the State.
The project will also help the department engage more effectively with the private sector, already a significant player in the State's healthcare systems. The other interventions of the project include development and implementation of regulatory functions such as transparent licensing, strengthening of the accreditation programme and quality enhancement in public sector hospitals.
The World Bank notes that with a population of approximately 200 million, UP will determine the achievement of the country's health goals and its health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Despite recent improvements, the State continues to face huge health challenges: more women die during childbirth than in most parts of the country and fewer children survive infancy; only one-third of children are fully immunised by 12 months of age; and infectious diseases remain a major problem.
It is also pointed out that the State Government has been steadily increasing its commitment to the healthcare sector and public health spending in the State currently stands at 1.6 per cent of the gross State domestic product, against the national average of one per cent.
The project builds on an earlier Health Systems Development Project in the State during 2000-2008, which supported investment in secondary healthcare services, systems strengthening and complementary investments in primary and preventive healthcares services.
North-Eastern Vision
The bank has also approved a $130-million credit to finance the Union Government's project to empower rural communities in the North-Eastern States. The North-East Rural Livelihoods Project (NERLP) envisages support to the rural poor, especially women, unemployed youth and the severely disadvantaged, in the four States of Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, to improve their standard of living by establishing sustainable institutions.
Though the region is rich in natural resources and enjoys relatively good human development indicators, it lags behind the rest of the country in important growth parameters.
Almost 35 per cent of its predominantly rural population lives below the poverty line; agricultural productivity is low; and high-school drop-out rates and lack of skills have led to high rate unemployment among the youth.
The Union Government, to accelerate economic growth in the region, has framed a North-Eastern Region Vision 2020; the NERLP, which is part of the vision, seeks to cover three lakh households in 11,624 villages in the four States.