Gabriele Mallapaty

The leadership of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) in Nepal prepared its proposal to the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI) around the same time that my family and I had decided to move back to Nepal in early 2008. Given that Nepal has recently emerged from a decade-long civil conflict and the country is in the midst of creating a "New Nepal", it seemed an opportune time to join MLI. The MoHP wanted to improve access to and use of essential health care services by the poor and marginalized population, and ensure sustainability of theses services throughout the country.

Considering my prior work at the global policy level and my knowledge of the public health field in Nepal, I thought this rather challenging assignment would be a prefect match to my professional and personal aspirations. As I had expected, developing the first year work plan and establishing working relations with senior leaders at the MoHP turned out to be both demanding and rewarding. It took some efforts to convey this new way of technical cooperation, based on self-identified needs, among the MoHP staff and its key external development partners.

Nepal has enshrined health as a fundamental human right in its interim constitution, with basic free care as a right of all Nepalese, and reproductive rights for all Nepali women. Through MLI, I hope that I can contribute in some way to assist the MoHP leadership in putting forward its plans and policies in an efficient and effective manner.

One year on, Nepal is leading in the implementation of its technical assistance plan. It is in the preliminary stages of synchronizing a knowledge management system, accessible to all the MoHP staff, and planning is underway for a leadership training to improve negotiation and decision-making skills of the senior MoHP staff in late September 2009. In my interactions with the Ministry staff, I try my best to convey MLI’s unique form of development cooperation for more equitable and quality health care services for all Nepalese.