Mr. V. Somasundaran, Secretary Women and Child Development; Mr. C.K. Mishra, Additional Secretary Health and Family Welfare and other senior officials from the NITI Aayog, Ministries of WCD, Health and Family Welfare, Statistics and Programme Implementation and Additional Registrar General of India shared valuable insights on the key priorities and design of the Nutrition Strategy, as well as Nutrition data. Ongoing initiatives under the Integrated Child Development Services, National Health Mission and other programmes were highlighted. Representatives of international agencies such as World Bank, UNDP, UN Women, UNICEF and WHO also shared their views at this forum.
NITI Aayog has been tasked with preparing the draft Nutrition Strategy by the end of December 2015, in consultation with both the concerned ministries, sectoral experts, States and other relevant stakeholders. It was decided that an Inter-Ministerial Group on Health and Nutrition Data will also be constituted, to identify the focus districts and finalize recommendations for monitoring and tracking progress of the Nutrition Strategy.