India to increase public health spending to 2.5 percent of GDP: PM Narendra Modi

New Delhi: India is set to increase its public health spending to 2.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.

He also said India is one of the first countries to advocate focused attention on adolescence and to implement a full-fledged health promotion and prevention programme for adolescents.

Addressing the 2018 Partners' Forum here, he said the central government is set to increase its spending on public health to 2.5 percent of the GDP.

As of now, the country spends 1.15 percent of the GDP on health.

The Partners' Forum meet this year will focus on improving multi-sectoral action for results, sharing country solutions and capturing the best practices and knowledge within the health sector and among related sectors.

Modi said that under Mission Indradhaush, a massive immunisation programme, India reached 32.8 million children and 8.4 million pregnant women over the last three years.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, inaugurated the fourth Partners’ Forum on 12^th December at New Delhi. The Government of India, in association with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), is hosting a two-day international conference on 12th and 13th December 2018, bringing together about 1500 participants from across 85 countries to improve the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents.

This is the fourth in a series of global high-level multi-country, multi-stakeholder events aimed at sustaining global momentum for issues related to the health of women, children and adolescents. As a lead up to the Partners’ Forum, a delegation of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), including Shri J. P. Nadda, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and former Board Chair of PMNCH, and renowned actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Ms. Priyanka Chopra met the Prime Minister during the Curtain Raiser on 11th April 2018, wherein the PM graciously agreed to be Patron of the PMNCH Forum.

Partners’ Forum is a global health partnership launched in September 2005 to accelerate efforts to reduce child and maternal mortality, improve adolescent, child, newborn and maternal health. This partnership is an alliance of more than 1,000 plus members, across 10 constituencies in 92 countries: academic, research and teaching institutions; donors and foundations; health care professionals; multilateral agencies; non-governmental organizations; partner countries; global financing mechanisms and the private sector.

The previous chapters were held in Johannesburg, South Africa (2014), New Delhi, India (2010) and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2007). This is the second time India is hosting the Partners’ Forum.

PMNCH's mission is to support the global health community to work successfully towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the health-related SDGs as articulated in the Strategy for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents’ Health in support of ‘Every Woman Every Child’ (EWEC) movement.

The programme of the Partners’ Forum will be framed around the objectives of the Global Strategy of Survive – Thrive – Transform. The programme will include four high-level plenaries that will focus on political leadership, multi-sectoral action, accountability and power of partnership. Each high-level plenary will be followed by six concurrent sessions that provide the opportunity for more detailed discussions to on Forum’s key themes.

The Forum will also present and explore the findings of the 12 Success Factors case studies that showcase how countries are collaborating across sectors to improve women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health. The case studies will be published in a special Partners’ Forum edition of the BMJ (originally called British Medical Journal) and disseminated widely.

The Partners’ Forum will showcase learning from across six regions:  Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Americas, South East Asia and Western Pacific on six thematic areas:

1. Early Childhood Development (Germany & Chile);


2. Adolescent Health and Well-Being (USA & Indonesia);


3. Quality, Equity and Dignity (QED) in Services (India & Cambodia);

From India, Intensified Mission Indradhanush has been selected as one of the case studies under QED theme.

4. Sexual and Reproductive Health (Malawi & Malaysia) and;


5. Empowerment of Women, Girls and Communities (South Africa & Guatemala); and


6. in Humanitarian and Fragile Settings (Sierra Leone & Afghanistan)