Shillong, June 1: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has underlined focus on better implementation of existing schemes rather than trying to create new schemes to solve developmental challenges.
Most Central and State Government schemes are already designed to address developmental challenges and the real challenge often lies in execution, he said while inaugurating a three-day Early Childhood Development (ECD) Implementation Science Workshop in Shillong.
The workshop, organised under the Meghalaya Early Childhood Development Mission (MECDM) in collaboration with the State Capability Enhancement Project (SCEP), the Van Leer Foundation and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), brought together policymakers, development practitioners, researchers and stakeholders from across the country to discuss ways of strengthening integrated systems for children and families.
“We often know the problems. We understand the science, the data and the analysis behind them. But ultimately, there has to be a will to make a difference,” the Chief Minister said.
Drawing from Meghalaya’s efforts to reduce maternal mortality, Sangma said the government initially believed that increasing institutional deliveries would solve the problem. However, deeper analysis revealed that transportation costs, distance and the absence of support systems were major barriers for expectant mothers.
Instead of investing heavily in additional infrastructure, the government developed locally adapted solutions, including a community transport model that compensates local vehicle owners for transporting pregnant women to health facilities.
Safe Motherhood Homes were also established to provide accommodation, food, care and support for women from remote areas during the final stages of pregnancy.
“The lesson here is that we must identify where the actual problem lies and then design solutions that are practical, affordable and tailored to local realities,” he said.
This approach, he said, eventually led to the development of MOTHER — Meghalaya’s Outcome and Transformation in Health, Education, Rural Development and Social Benefit initiative — which integrates multiple departments around a common focus on mothers and children.
“We are no longer looking at departments or schemes in isolation. We are looking at a human life and asking how government can support that life at every stage,” Sangma said.
He further observed that maternal and child health outcomes are closely linked to economic empowerment.
This understanding informed the government’s efforts to strengthen Self-Help Groups, whose numbers have grown from about 4,500 to nearly 60,000 over the past eight years.
Following the Chief Minister’s address, Patricia Núñez Zamora of the Van Leer Foundation shared Chile’s experience in building “Chile Crece Contigo” (Chile Grows With You), an integrated early childhood development system that supports children and families from pregnancy through childhood.
She said the science behind ECD is well established, but implementation remains the biggest challenge.
“The problem was never the absence of services. The problem was that services were not working together with a shared view of the child and family,” she said, stressing the need for coordination across sectors and strong institutional systems.
Providing the context for the workshop, Additional Chief Secretary Sampath Kumar said Meghalaya’s ECD mission was shaped by scientific evidence on the importance of early childhood and has made the state one of the first regions in the Asia-Pacific to adopt a comprehensive integrated ECD framework.
He pointed to improvements reflected in recent National Family Health Survey findings relating to maternal and child health, nutrition and stunting indicators, while noting that challenges remain.
Kumar also highlighted that Meghalaya’s governance approach has attracted wider recognition, including documentation as a Harvard Kennedy School case study on adaptive leadership.
