OVERVIEW OF ODISHA HEALTH SECTOR AND NUTRITION SUPPORT(OHSNP):

APRIL 2008-MARCH 2015

The Department of Health and Family Welfare (DoH&FW) and the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Government of Odisha (GoO) have been implementing Health Sector Support Plan (2007-2012), with support from DFID, to facilitate improvement in the health and nutrition status of the people of Odisha through enhanced equitable access to quality health and nutrition care. OHSNP aims to reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, the communicable disease burden, under-nutrition, and regional and social disparities in health outcomes. Its main strategies include providing increased resources to poorer districts, capacity building for more responsive service delivery, improving management systems including monitoring of outcomes, addressing barriers to demand and access for SC, ST and other vulnerable groups, decentralised planning, inter-departmental convergence to address health determinants and more efficient use of resources.

There has been considerable progress in health status in Odisha over the last 5 years. The sector has benefited from the improved fiscal situation of the State, increased allocations for health care from the Central Government through NRHM and enhanced implementation capacity. However, the indicators for infant and maternal mortality remain high and there is still a large gap between the performance in Odisha and nationally. In this scenario, an Addendum to OHSP has been agreed between the UK, GoO and the India Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) to continue with a second phase of support until March 2015.

The objectives of the extended support are three-fold:

Consolidating health reforms and health systems strengthening from Phase 1;

Accelerating implementation of the Nutrition Operational Plan for reduction of malnutrition with a special focus on preventing malnutrition in children below 2 years;

Driving down to address the social determinants of health through empowerment of women and communities and an increased focus on water, sanitation and hygiene.