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 incoming Board Chair of PMNCH and renowned actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Ms. Priyanka Chopra, the three champions for PMNCH Partners’ Forum, Shri A. K. Choubey, MoS (Health & Family Welfare) and Ms. Preeti Sudan, Secretary (HFW) called on the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today, to invite him about the upcoming Partners Forum 2018 which will be hosted during 12-13 December, 2018 at New Delhi. Heads of State and Health Ministers from various countries and 1200 delegates would be participating in this forum. PMNCH is a global partnership of 92 countries and over 1000 organisations. The Prime Minister graciously agreed to be Patron of the PMNCH Forum and accepted the Logo of the forum.
Dr. Michelle Bachelet, as the incoming Chair, explained the mandate of the Partnership and sought ideas from the Prime Minister on how to take forward the challenge of women empowerment, children and young people. Prime Minister shared his personal experiences on the initiatives taken in Gujarat for increasing institutional deliveries through partnership with the private sector and organising community feeding for the poor and pregnant women in villages so that their nutrition needs could be met. He stressed on effective communication strategy. He also emphasised that ‘participation is partnership’. The Prime Minister also suggested that we should involve people across the globe, specially young people in important issues like nutrition, age of marriage, pre-natal and post-natal care and seek ideas for effective implementation and communication for programmes for women, children and adolescents. He suggested that we could have an online quiz competition on these themes and provide awards to prize winners in the upcoming Partners’ Forum Meeting in December 2018.