PIB News Update: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its ex-post-facto approval on the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between Department of Health & Family Welfare (DOHFW), Government of India and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on cooperation in the field of Health signed in November, 2019 during the visit of Mr. Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of BMGF to Delhi.
The Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) covers the following areas of cooperation:-
a) To reduce maternal, neonatal and child morbidity and mortality, improve key nutrition outcomes, by improving the reach, coverage and quality of essential primary health, immunization and nutrition services.
b) To increase the basket of choice and quality for family planning methods, specially for reversible methods, and increase access amongst younger women.
c) To reduce the burden of select infectious diseases [TB, Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), Lymphatic Filariasis(LF)].
d) To strengthen health systems, including aspects such as budget utilization, management and skills of human resources for health, digital health, strengthening supply chains and monitoring systems.
A Program Action Committee (PAC) will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this Memorandum of Cooperation.