The Hindu : European Commission support for health institute

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

European Commission support for health institute

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 21. The European Commission has given its approval for strengthening and supporting the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Health & Family Welfare (IIHFW), one of the two such institutions in the country to secure the commission's support. For the IIHFW, this is a highly prestigious tie-up since the EC has agreed to train its entire faculty in the London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in two batches to improve its skills and knowledge. In the second phase, the commission will upgrade the institute's library at a cost of Rs. 50 lakhs and its computer centre.

According to the IIHFW Director, M. Mohan Ram, the main spin-off of this support will be the identification of long-term collaborative research projects by the institute along with LSE or other European institutions and their implementation over the next three-five years in areas like reproductive health, family welfare and communication. The Institutional Cooperation Component of the commission gave its green signal after a team of consultants from LSE and LSHTM carried out an organisational diagnosis of the institution and recommended action for capacity building. Recently, its Team Leader, Philip Constable, briefed the Health Minister and others about the progress of the collaborative project. Dr. Mohan Ram told The Hindu on Wednesday that the fledgling institution was today receiving support from top global institutions like the World Bank, UNFPA, DFID, WHO, UNICEF, CARE and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a variety of projects. As it was also generating funds through consultancy and training, the IIHFW, was well on its way to becoming self-sufficient.

He said a major landmark for the institute was the National Family Health Survey-2 it conducted in AP in 1998-99 with USAID support. The second achievement was the linkages it had entered into with foreign institutions like Mahidol University, Bangkok in reproductive health, especially in areas like STD and HIV/AIDS, which helped IIHFW earn money and train its faculty.

The Director said the second batch of faculty members consisting of S. Ram Murthy, P. Satya Sekhar, readers, V. Uma Devi and K. Anand Reddy, lecturers, would participate in a two-week course in LSE during January-February.

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