World Bank Assisted ISSNIP launched

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data had indicated about 43 percent children under 5 years of age and 40 percent under three children are underweight. Thus the World Bank assisted ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) has been launched by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women & Child Development

The four major components under the project are: (i) Institutional and systems strengthening in ICDS (ii) Community mobilization and behaviour change communication (iii) piloting multi-sectoral nutrition actions, and (iv) Project Management, Technical Assistance and Monitoring & Evaluation. The programme aims at improving child development and nutritional outcomes for children in selected districts having higher proportional of child under nutrition.

The estimated cost of phase 1 of the project is about US$ 151.50 million (Rs. 682 crore) of which US$ 106 million is the International Development Association (IDA) share (70 percent). The World Bank is supporting this project initially with a concessionary loan of US$ 106 million payable over 25 years. This is likely to be followed by a second phase of support of US$ 344 million subject to assessment of phase 1. 

The first phase of the project will support the government’s efforts to strengthen policy measures and institutional capacity needed to improve nutrition in the targeted groups of mothers and children and will also finance innovative pilots and programmers in 162 high malnutrition-burden districts across eight States. In additional the project will support urban/sub-urban pilots in NCR of Delhi and convergent nutrition action pilots in Odisha and Uttarakhand. 

There are significant regional disparities in nutritional indicators with 60 percent of the burden of malnutrition found in the low-income states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh) and an additional 8-10 percent of the burden concentrated in specific geographical areas in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.