PR No.66 HEALTH MINISTER DR. ZAFAR MIRZA PRESIDES NATIONAL HEALTH & POPULATION COORDINATION CONSORTIUM – AFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO WORKING WITH ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO ACHIEVE TARGETS Islamabad, May 15, 2019

A meeting of National Health and population coordination consortium was held on 14th May 2019 in the Ministry. Meeting was chaired by Health Minister Dr. Zafar Mirza. Representative of Economic Affairs Division, Planning & Development, provincial health, population departments, international partners including USAID, World Bank, DFID, DAFT, German Embassy, WFP, UNFPA, UNAIDS WHO and UNICEF participated. Dr. Mirza in his welcome remarks highlighted that health is a vital component of Human Development and only those societies achieve their development objectives that ensure the optimal health and wellbeing of their citizens. The present Government is fully committed to achieving better health outcomes in order to achieve objectives outlined in National Health Vision 2016-25 and Goal 3 of Sustainable Development Goals, in coordination and collaboration with all stakeholders within health and outside the health sector, said the Minister. The Prime Minister is the greatest champion and proponent of the welfare state and this can only be possible with Universal Health Coverage. If health is the basic right then Universal Health Coverage is the means to achieve it, the Minister added. He further said thatthis forum was created to bring all stakeholder together for exchange of ideasand suggestion to develop synergies and complimentary and avoid duplication and gaps. Donor coordination is very important and lot can be achieved by working together. Pakistan is a signatory of UHC 2030 IHP. UHC2030 that provides a multi-stakeholder platform to promote collaborative working in countries and globally on health systems strengthening. Later Director General Health, Dr. Assad Hafeez presented the Islamabad Model Health System. The Objective is to ensure efficient and effective health service delivery system for Islamabad through an integrated approach. Accordingly First ever’ Health Strategy for ICT developed and approved along with National Action Plan in November 2018. The operational plan has six components namely evidence generation for planning, Infrastructure development, strengthening service delivery, Human Resource for health, regulatory environment and supply management systems. Various activities under each components has been started. One fully implemented this can be model for provinces to replicate for delivery of quality health care services. All the partners appreciated the efforts of the Ministry and commended the step it has taken toward achieving Universal Health Coverage. They also ensured their commitment and continued support. WHO representative to Pakistan Dr. Palitha Mahipala said that if Islamabad Model Health System is realized, it can be a model not only for provinces but also for the world. They also recommended to the ministry to consider strategic integration and to work in close coordination with other sectors like education. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

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