PM's address at an event of International Health Partership

Intervention by Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal at high-level event to mark the culmination of the work of the Taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, New York 23 September 2009

(Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom and President Robert Zoellick of the World Bank are the co-chairs of the Taskforce)

Co-Chairs of the Taskforce

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to convey my deep appreciation to the Co-chairs, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Robert Zoellick, of the Taskforce on Innovative Financing for Health Systems for organizing this high-level event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and for inviting me to this important program.

I am pleased to inform that Nepal is making remarkable and steady progress in health care: we are on course to meet the Millennium Development Goals related to child survival and possibly maternal mortality reduction. In the past decade we have both halved the number of maternal deaths as well as the number of deaths under 5. Even with these significant achievements, sadly one mother dies during child birth every 4 hours, and 110 newborns die every day.

Following a decade of armed conflict, the new Interim Constitution of 2007 established the right to basic health care free of charge and that every woman shall have the right to reproductive health care. We have enacted this through our commitment to free health care and other financial incentives for women and children. Our latest major policy is the introduction of free maternity services since January this year.

Today we will build on this progress by committing my Government to three actions:

We will further reduce financial barriers to the poor with providing an incentive cash-in-hand to women to attend antenatal care, and to quickly scale up free maternity care. This will enable 1.5 million women to have a safer delivery over the next 5 years.

We will ensure that the services are in place to meet the increased demand: more health workers, more medicines and better equipped facilities. Safer deliveries will require that Nepal provide a further 4,000 skilled birth attendants, have birthing facilities in all our health posts and caesarean section facilities in all our district hospitals.

My Government will make sure that resources get to those in need: We will improve the governance of the sector to enhance its efficiency and effectiveness so that quality health care reaches the people of remote mountains and villages in Nepal, that the distribution is equitable and protects the rights of the people for basic health care.

I am proud of what Nepal has achieved in spite of our constraints and limitations as a least developed country. Women really appreciate free maternity care. A grandmother recently remarked upon the birth of her granddaughter that compared to the past, the current situation of pregnant women has improved tremendously over the years.

Our commitments will be taken forward by the Ministry of Health and Population’s next 5 year strategic plan which commences from next summer. To deliver my vision of a sustainable equitable health system, we need adequate resources. I will do my utmost to increase domestic resources. We have increased health budget by about 15 to 20 percent each year in the last three years.

Your Excellencies, let me call upon the International Health Partnership signatories to honour IHP commitments and provide Nepal with long-term and predictable financing. That is what partnership is all about. I trust your answer will be positive so that I can go back home with a promise of concrete actions to improve the health and quality of life for the people of Nepal.