Remarks by George Deikun, USAID India Mission Director atAt World AIDS Day Commemoration 2007, American Center, New Delhi

June 12, 2008

USAID Mission Director, George Deikun, speaking at the MCH-STAR launch event on June 12, 2008 at PHD House, New Delhi. Photo Credit: MCH-STAR/India

I am pleased to be here today to welcome you all to this launch of the Maternal Child Health - Sustainable Technical Assistance and Research Initiative, known as MCH-STAR. I want to share with you some of the unique features of this initiative and why USAID believes now is the time for MCH-STAR.

This is an extraordinary period in India with an unprecedented rate of economic, scientific and technological development. Many call it the “Golden Age” for the largest democracy in the world. Yet, as we all know, there is the other India – an India with 700 million people living on less than $2 per day.

While the third National Family Health Survey showed that infant and child mortality rates are decreasing, there are still health challenges -- challenges that India can certainly overcome. India still has the highest absolute number of maternal and newborn deaths of any other country in the world. Over half of mothers are anemic and seventy percent of all Indian children suffer from anemia. 46% of children under three are malnourished.

USAID is committed to improving maternal and child health and nutrition in India and to supporting the Government of India’s policies and programs. Among the initiatives USAID currently supports include: the National Rural Health Mission including Reproductive and Child Health Phase-2, Integrated Child Development Services Scheme, National AIDS Control Program 3, National TB Program and the emerging National Urban Health Mission. USAID’s current funding support to the health sector through bi-lateral agreements with the Government of India total more than $200 million.

USAID is pleased to be launching today our newest initiative – MCH-Star – which will foster technical leadership and strengthen the capacity of Indian institutions to achieve national maternal and child health goals over the next five years. Because the challenge is so vast, this initiative will foster cooperation and complementarities among all on-going capacity building efforts.

The goals of MCH-Star are to develop:

• Proactive, well-informed technical leaders that are equipped with the experience to champion change;
• Partnerships that take the best from the private and the public experience and expertise;
• Successful policies, programs, and interventions taken to scale, and
• A robust cadre of world class Indian public health experts.

What makes the $13.8million MCH-STAR Initiative unique is that it is led by Indian institutions and facilitated by U.S.-based global expertise. After a competitive selection process, we have selected a group of outstanding partner Indian institutions who we believe are well-positioned to take full advantage of the resources of MCH-Star to develop further. Our MCH-Star partners are IndiaCLen; Population Foundation of India; and the Public Health Foundation of India.

MCH-STAR is also unique in that it is a responsive to client needs. Each activity will respond directly to the program and policy needs of the states of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, or the national government, in maternal - child health and nutrition. By working in the states of Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the initiative will tackle the most serious of maternal and children’s health needs. It will also provide demonstrations of policy and program successes that can catalyze new government and private sector schemes for scale-up across India.

Finally, MCH-STAR will be working on areas of convergence – where maternal and children’s health intersects with nutrition, urban health, polio, HIV/AIDS, reproductive health including family planning, and other sectors - to improve the health and saving the lives of Indian mothers and children.

We believe the MCH-STAR initiative will bring new ideas, capacity and advances to enhance the impact of the large amount of investment already being made in the health sector. And that because of India’s economic and development transformation, the time is now for investing in India health institutions. When India transforms, the world transforms with it.

Before I close, I want to commend Secretary Dayal as well as the state representatives to Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child Development, for their work and the strong partner that the government of India has been to USAID in the health sector. It is only because of their contributions that we have been able to accomplish what we have.

And I wish complete success to PHFI, PFI and IndiaCLEN in their work under MCH-STAR. I look forward to seeing the impressive results of our partnership through MCH-STAR which will undoubtedly make your institutions leaders in health advances in India in the coming years.