Dr. Nimisha Goel
(MBBS, MD)
In this blog, Dr Nimisha Goel (MBBS, MD), National Program Officer at the Norway India Partnership, explores maternal, newborn and child health in India in the context of post-COVID recovery by focussing on the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the country and advocating for a more integrated and comprehensive model of care.
As the world recovers from the devastating impact of COVID-19, it remains watchful of the future waves and limps back to normality. The priority has become building back better. While the human loss and suffering inflicted by this pandemic are overwhelming, it has also exposed the challenges of our health systems. Today when we think of building back better, we need to take a look at examples that have worked and what could be done better within the available resource framework.
The Millennium Development Goals successfully brought focus to the health and survival of mothers and children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and contributed to averting 1,40,000 maternal deaths in 2015, and saving the lives of 48 million children between 2000 and 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 went a step further and brought global agreement on universal health coverage and reducing preventable mortality due to all causes.
