Officials and representatives during the signing of LoA at the commissioner's office in Kohima on April 24. (DIPR Photo)
Pilot project to cover 60 ‘high malnutrition’ villages across six districts
Kohima, April 24 (MExN): A Letter of Agreement (LoA) bringing together the state government, district administration and a civil society organisation was signed here on Friday to strengthen maternal and child health, nutrition and early childhood development across six districts of Nagaland, with the pilot phase set to cover 60 villages.
The agreement was signed at the commissioner's office in the presence of Gregory Thejawelie, IAS, Commissioner of Nagaland; Kevileno Angami, Commissioner and Secretary for School Education and SCERT; L Jamithung Lotha, IAS, State Mission Director of Samagra Shiksha; S Tainiu, Secretary, Health and Family Welfare; and Rev Dr S Chingmak Chang, Founder of Eleutheros Christian Society (ECS), along with senior officials and NGO leaders.
As per the DIPR report, the LoA brings together the Department of School Education, the Department of Health and Family Welfare, ECS and the District Administration under a unified convergence framework aimed at ensuring that “every mother and child in the identified districts has access to integrated and quality services related to education, nutrition and health.”
The pilot phase will cover 60 villages across six eastern districts - Mon, Longleng, Tuensang, Shamator, Kiphire, and Noklak - chosen on account of their “high malnutrition burden.” The initiative is expected to serve as a demonstration model for scaling across the state.
The programme aims to strengthen maternal and child health services through coordinated departmental efforts, ensuring access to nutrition and early childhood care, establishing robust monitoring mechanisms and creating a scalable model of convergence.
Under the agreement, the Department of School Education will support early learning, facilitate school-based health activities, and strengthen infrastructure and teacher accountability. The Department of Health & Family Welfare will ensure the delivery of essential maternal and child health services, including immunization, antenatal and postnatal care, and the availability of medicines and diagnostics.
The ECS will play a key role in community mobilization, organizing awareness campaigns, supporting supplementary feeding initiatives, and facilitating training for frontline workers. It will also assist in organizing Aadhaar registration drives to ensure the inclusion of all beneficiaries in welfare schemes.
The District Administration will oversee implementation, conduct regular reviews at the block level, ensure staff attendance, and support the strengthening of Village Councils for effective local governance.
To ensure accountability and progress tracking, a District Convergence Committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner. Quarterly block-level review meetings will also be conducted with the participation of all stakeholders.
