Members of Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) present Mr Alok Vajpeyi, Director – Programmes (Acting), Population Foundation of India (PFI) welcomed the participants to the 36th meeting of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA). He informed the group that Ms Poonam Muttreja would not be able to attend the meeting as she is unwell. Mr Vajpeyi introduced Mr Saurabh Raj, who has recently joined the AGCA Secretariat as Programme Manager. Members requested Mr A R Nanda to chair the meeting. Mr Nanda shared that the broad objectives of the meeting were to: Update on progress of AGCA activitiesRead More…

Members of Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed the participants to the 35th meeting of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA). She requested Ms Mirai Chatterjee to chair the meeting. Ms Chatterjee stated that the broad objectives of the meeting were to: 1. Compliance on Action Points from the 34th AGCA meeting Bijit Roy shared an update on the Action Taken on the 34th AGCA meeting. Regional Consultations Bijit informed that two regional consultations were being organised in Mumbai and Guwahati on January 18-19, 2017 and January 24-25, 2017, respectively. He shared the agendaRead More…

Members of Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) present AGCA members confirmed the minutes of the 33rd AGCA meeting organised on June 3, 2016. Compliance on Action Points from the 33rd AGCA meeting Bijit Roy shared an update on the Action Taken on the 33rd AGCA meeting. Sl. No. Action Points Responsibility Action Taken 1. Prepare an analysis of the State PIPs – proposed budget by the states, approval from the MoHFW, and utilisation of resources for the community action for health component. AGCA Secretariat Analysis shared on August 2, 2016 2. Organise the next AGCA sub-group meeting to discussRead More…

Members of Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed the participants to the 33rd meeting of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA). The meeting began with the reading of a condolence message in the memory of Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury, Member AGCA, who passed away on October 27, 2015.  In homage, the group observed a minute’s silence. The broad objectives of the meeting are given below: AGCA members confirmed the minutes of the 32nd AGCA meeting organized on October 1, 2015. Compliance on Action Points from the 32nd AGCA meeting Bijit Roy shared an updateRead More…

Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) members present Sharing of recent innovations on community action and their potential for scaling up Pahel: Strengthening engagement of elected women representatives in Bihar Dr Aparajita Gogoi, Centre for Catalyzing Change, presented the experiences and outcomes of the Pahel project, which focused on ‘building leadership skills among elected women representatives (EWR) to take action to improve health services and address development issues in their constituencies’. The process is being implemented in three districts – Aurangabad, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi.  The EWRs were trained to use simple pictorial checklists to assess the availability and quality ofRead More…

Advisory Group on Community Action Members present Reflection on AGCA priorities for the current Financial Year (2015-16) Re-organization of states among AGCA members AGCA members volunteered to guide processes in the following states: The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Ms Poonam Muttreja. ***** Action Points from the 31st AGCA Meeting  Sl. No. Action Points Responsibility 1. Request the MoHFW to consider organizing an annual  joint meeting of the ASHA Mentoring Group and AGCA AGCA Secretariat 2. Request the MoHFW to write to the State Governments to engage resource organizations in community action processes AGCA Secretariat 3. OrganizeRead More…

Advisory Group on Community Action Members present Confirmation and Action Taken on the Minutes of the 29th AGCA meeting held on September 11, 2014 The members confirmed the minutes of the 29th AGCA meeting held on September 11, 2014. Dr Sanjay Pandey, Director Programmes, PFI shared an update on the Action Taken on the 29th meeting. Compliance on action points of the 29th AGCA Meeting Sl. No. Action Points Responsibility Action Taken 1. Revise agenda of the National Consultation on Community Action for Health as per suggestions of the MoHFW and AGCA members AGCA Secretariat The National Consultation on CommunityRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed the participants to the Twenty eighth meeting of the AGCA. She said the objectives of the meeting were to discuss (a) progress of activities between November 2013 – March 2014, (b) key findings and recommendations  of  the  Seventh Common Review Mission (CRM), and (c)   priorities and strategies for strengthening Community Action for Health (CAH) over the next year. Ms Muttreja introduced the newly recruited staff to the AGCA Members. They include Mr Vijay Jamwal, Team Leader; Dr Ajay Misra, Programme Manager; Mr Daman Ahuja, Programme Manager; Ms Tripti Chandra, Programme Manager; andRead More…

Advisory Group on Community Action Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed the participants to the 29th meeting of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA). The meeting began with Ms Muttreja  reading out a condolence message in the memory of Dr Shanti Ghosh, Member AGCA, who passed away on August 16, 2014. The group paid homage to Dr Ghosh by observing silence for a minute.  The AGCA members conveyed their heartfelt condolences to her family. A copy of the condolence message is enclosed for reference in Annexure A. Ms Muttreja shared that the broad objectives of the meeting were toRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed all the participants to the twenty seventh meeting of the AGCA. Ms Muttreja shared that the broad objectives of the meeting were to discuss a) steps for operationalizing AGCA’s proposal on ‘Strengthening Community Action under National Health Mission (NHM)’; b) experiences from the 7th Common Review Mission (CRM) visits; and  c) update on the status of implementation of the intermediate activities, approved by Ministry. Upon request from the AGCA members, Mr Manoj Jhalani, Joint Secretary- Policy, MoHFW provided an overview of the new initiatives under the National Health Mission (NHM).  These included:Read More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed all the participants to the twenty sixth meeting of the AGCA. She provided an overview on the role of the AGCA in strengthening the community action under NRHM. Confirmation and Action taken on the Minutes of the 25th AGCA Meeting held on April 8, 2013 The members confirmed the minutes of 25th AGCA Meeting held on April 8, 2013. Action Taken from the 25th AGCA Meeting held on April 8, 2013 Sl No Action Points Responsibility Action Taken 1. The AGCA would send a budget seeking approval from the Ministry to supportRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed all the participants to the twenty fifth meeting of the AGCA. She requested Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury to chair the meeting.  Prof Chaudhury mentioned that the national drug regulatory policy is being revamped. Scientific rationale will form the basis of all future decisions. The draft policy has been uploaded on the website for comments and inputs. He requested AGCA to send their inputs on the draft policy and mentioned that a separate meeting could be organized to discuss this further. Ms Muttreja shared that Mr Manoj Jhalani (Joint Secretary -Policy, MoHFW) hadRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Post lunch discussions on the way forward The following discussions were held in the post lunch session: VHSC and RKS Guidelines: The meeting ended with a vote of thanks from Ms Poonam Muttreja.

Advisory Group Members present Confirmation and Action Taken on the Last Minutes of Meeting The members confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting held on July 29, 2011: Sl. No. Action Points Action taken 1. Letter to be sent to the Health Minister on the Citizen Charter and Grievance Redress Mechanism A letter was sent by the Secretariat. The response received from the Health Minister’s office has been circulated among the AGCA members. The AGCA’s response will be discussed in the current meeting. 2. AGCA should send in a resolution to the Madhya Pradesh government, which emphasizes that family planningRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms. Poonam Muttreja chaired the meeting at the request of the members present. She welcomed all the participants to the twenty-second meeting of the AGCA. She introduced Mr Bijit Roy, who has taken charge as the Programme Officer, Community Action and will be coordinating the AGCA work at the National Secretariat. She also introduced Mr Krishan Dhawan, Management and Planning Expert, who is supporting PFI in its organizational planning and development. The members confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting held on April 5, 2011. Key deliberations and decisions taken at the meeting are as follows:Read More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms. Poonam Muttreja chaired the meeting at the request of the members present. She welcomed all participants to the twenty first meeting of the AGCA. She introduced the special invitees from National Health Resource Center (NHSRC), Dr. T Sundararaman and Dr. Rajani Ved and thanked them for sparing time to attend the meeting. The members confirmed the Minutes of the previous meeting held on December 24, 2010. The agenda for the meeting included presentations on the Barwani visit in Madhya Pradesh by the AGCA team and the maternal deaths in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. This was followed byRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Ms Poonam Muttreja welcomed the members to the 20th AGCA meeting.  She suggested that the second agenda point: Discussion on Meeting with Planning Commission could be discussed first. This could be followed by the confirmation of the minutes of the last meeting held on September 17, 2010 and other discussion points mentioned in the agenda. Ms. Muttreja also recommended that an NHSRC representative could be invited to the AGCA meetings as NHRSC is involved in training and strengthening ASHAs at the community level. The group endorsed the idea and it was decided that NHSRC would beRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury chaired the meeting and welcomed the Members and special invitees to the 19th AGCA meeting.  He wished Mr A R Nanda for his retired life and expressed the hope that his association with the AGCA continues in an individual capacity. Welcoming Ms Poonam Muttreja, the new Executive Director, PFI, Prof Roy Chaudhury said that the Members look forward to her leadership not only in this committee but in the Foundation as well. Mr. Nanda thanked Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury for taking the responsibility of chairing the meeting and giving his wise counselRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Mr. A R Nanda welcomed the members and the special invitees to the 18th AGCA meeting. He shared the agenda of the meeting and conveyed that this time ten members were attending the meeting and nine members had requested leave of absence due to their prior commitments and from the GOI, Mr Puneet Kansal, Director, NRHM would be attending the meeting. Mr Nanda mentioned that Dr Arole so far had attended only one meeting. However, Mr Harsh Mander has never attended any meeting. Dr Narendra Gupta was requested to speak to Mr. Harsh Mander to requestRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Action Point: The discussion concluded with a decision to form a sub-group that would collate evidence and prepare a white paper to be taken forward. The sub-group includes Dr Abhijit Das, as convener, Dr. Thelma Narayan, Dr. Mirai Chatterjee, Dr. H Sudarshan, Dr Saraswati Swain and secretarial support would be provided by PFI (Dr. Almas Ali and Ms. Sona Sharma). It was decided that every meeting of AGCA would have this as an agenda item. Agenda Item No. 3:  GOI Response to AGCA recommendations for state PIPs Mr. Amarjeet Sinha apprised the group of the following:Read More…

Advisory Group Members present Mr. A R Nanda welcomed the members and other invitees to the 16th AGCA meeting. He shared that this is an important meeting as the AGCA has been asked to develop a framework for increasing involvement of Civil Society Organizations in NRHM. He conveyed that this time four members had requested leave of absence due to their prior commitments and some of the members would be joining in the meeting for some time. He requested Dr H Sudarshan to Chair the meeting.  Agenda Item No. 1: Confirmation and Action Taken on the minutes of the 15thRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Mr. A R Nanda welcomed the members and special invitees to the meeting. He conveyed that this time out of 19 members, ten had requested leave of absence due to their prior commitments. He requested Dr Thelma Narayan to Chair the meeting. Welcoming the participants, Dr Thelma Narayan summarized the agenda for the meeting. The agenda included an update on the community monitoring, formation of Regional Resource Centre and a national dissemination for community monitoring, followed by future initiatives for Community Action. Agenda Item No. 1: Confirmation and Action Taken on the minutes of the 14thRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Mr. Alok Mukhopadhyay welcomed the members to the meeting. He shared with the members that with the new Health Minister in place and chances of the social sector having more resources in the new budget, one needs to assess how to get better participation of NGOs at the state level. He emphasized that this was an important meeting as a lot of energetic effort had gone into community monitoring with positive results and its continuity needed to be ensured. Prof Ranjit Roy Chaudhury chaired the meeting. Welcoming the participants, he emphasized that the meeting was importantRead More…

Advisory Group Members present Agenda Item 1: Confirmation of minutes of 12th AGCA Ms Sudipta highlighted the 12th AGCA actionable points. Members had no suggestions/comments on the minutes of the 12th AGCA and the minutes were finalized. Agenda Item 2: NRHM Common Review Mission – response from review team members Following are the key highlights from state reviews as mentioned by the members: Agenda Item 3: Presentation of findings from review of Community Monitoring Programme Mr S Ramanathan presented the findings of the review of the programme on community monitoring on behalf of the review team. Detailed presentation attached asRead More…

AGCA members present: Introduction Mr Nanda welcomed all those present particularly the representatives from MOHFW, GTZ, the representatives from the state nodal NGOs and the three consultants who have expressed an interest to undertake the review of the community monitoring programme. He hoped that GTZ would benefit from the presentation and also share its interest in the community based monitoring and planning effort in the future. Mr Nanda congratulated Dr Narendra Gupta for taking over as managing trustee of Health Watch. Health Watch played a key role in rights based advocacy in the design of RCH-2 and NHRM. Agenda ItemRead More…