Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday and discussed how to reinforce the Foundation’s commitment to the State’s development priorities. The Microsoft founder has made it a point to meet Nitish every time he visits India. His Foundation is running health related programmes in eight districts of Bihar for over five years.
After the meeting Nitish said, ‘’Health and nutrition are critical markers of Bihar’s progress, and my Government is committed to ensuring equitable health and nutrition services and increased health financing to bring about greater improvements so that we can make a significant difference. We need to strengthen our health system under which marginalized communities can receive universal health care. We will continue working closely with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accomplish our health, nutrition and development goals.”
The CM said that his government is open to the suggestion of involvement of high quality private sector operators, under requisite public private partnerships (PPP) to deliver high quality neonatal care and in this regard is willing to look into attractive contracting and payment systems for which he requested the Foundation to provide technical support.
Congratulating Nitish on his re-election and commenting on the Foundation’s partnership with Bihar Government, Bill Gates said, “It is heartening to see the significant progress Bihar has made in improving its health and nutrition outcomes especially for women, newborns and children under five years. The Foundation has been working closely with the State Government and other partners since 2010 to improve equitable access to public health and nutrition services to mothers and children across the State.”
Accompanied by the key members of his India leadership team, Gates assured the CM, “We stand committed to work collaboratively with the Government for the next five years on issues of maternal, neonatal and child health, nutrition, family planning, immunisation, infectious diseases management (diarrhea, pneumonia and tuberculosis) and elimination of Kala-azar and enhance support through technical assistance insanitation, digital financial inclusion and agriculture to achieve their public health and development goals.”