India signed Loan Agreement of $300 Million with ADB for National Urban Health Mission

India on 28 July 2015 signed a loan agreement of 300 million US dollars with Asian Development Bank (ADB) for its flagship programme National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). The main of the NUHM is to improve the health status of the country’s urban population.

The agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of India and M. Teresa Kho, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission on behalf of ADB.

The loan agreement is titled Supporting National Urban Health Mission and it seeks to reinforce ongoing government efforts under the NUHM to develop health systems in urban areas that can deliver quality health services to the urban poor and vulnerable.

Further, it will focus on strengthening primary health care and also promote better coordination between health and urban sectors and opportunities for public-private partnerships.

Besides, the two parties also signed the accompanying capacity building technical assistance of 2 million US dollars financed by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

About National Urban Health Mission (NUHM)

The National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as a sub-mission of National Health Mission (NHM) was approved by the Union Cabinet on 1 May 2013 for continuation up to 2017.

It is implemented by the Union Ministries of Urban Development, Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Human Resource Development and Women & Child Development.

Key points of NUHM

• It seeks to cover all 779 cities with a population of above 50000 and all the district and state headquarters (irrespective of the population size)
• It provides for Mahila Arogya Samitis for promotion of access to improved health care at household level on the lines of Mahila Bachat Gat scheme in Maharashtra
• It seeks to reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) by 40 percent (in urban areas) and National Urban IMR down to 20 per 1000 live births by 2017
• It also aims to reduce Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) by 50 percent by 2017
• Achieve universal access to reproductive health including 100 percent institutional delivery
• Achieve replacement level fertility of 2.1 by 2017

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