According to a World Bank press statement issued from Washington DC, the grant will be used in the Second Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) and HIV/AIDS Project. [break]
“The project will support the government´s program to respond to the people´s expectations of inclusive and accountable public services,” said Susan Goldmark, the World Bank Country Director for Nepal.
“The geographic coverage of essential services will be expanded, and policies aimed at increasing access and utilization by the poor and under-served populations will be more systematically implemented.”
The project will support the expansion and strengthening of essential health services -- including improvement of reproductive, maternal and child health, prevention of the impact of non-communicable diseases and to control communicable diseases -- with a focus on better reaching the poor and excluded segments of the society and will build on the World Bank´s on-going support to Nepal´s health sector since 2004.
The World Bank has cited Nepal´s impressive progress in health sector in the past few years in the statement. Infant mortality has declined by 39 percent over the last 15 years from 79 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1991-94 to 48 deaths in 2001-2005, under-five mortality, has been reduced by 48 percent from 118 to 61 deaths per 1,000 live births over the same period while neonatal and postnatal mortality also decreased by 34 and 48 percents, respectively.
“The quality of services will be regularly monitored under the proposed support,” the statement quoted Nastu Sharma, Health Specialist at the World Bank, as saying.
“This will be done through a range of activities, including the scaling up of social auditing mechanisms, periodic surveys and reviews of goods and works procured, and periodic facility surveys,” Sharma added.
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