2-Mar-2023: Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare Conducts Seminar on Pandemic Fund

Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare organised a seminar in collaboration with The Pandemic Fund at Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi. The orientation seminar focussed on the functioning of the Pandemic Fund and its recently announced First Call for Proposals. Further, discussions were also held to explore potential role of Indian health organisations as Implementing Entities of the Pandemic Fund.

The seminar highlighted the need for global health cooperation and sharing of knowledge and resources, especially for LMICs. Key officials from Indian health organizations discussed their capacity in disease surveillance and Pandemic PPR and showcased their Global Health cooperation efforts. The seminar also introduced The Pandemic Fund and its priority areas, including the need for a Global Medical Countermeasures Coordination Platform. Attendees were given a demo of India's Integrated Health Information Platform, a web-enabled real-time electronic health information and surveillance for managing disease outbreaks and related resources and a tour of the Health Emergency Operations Centre & Public Health Observatory.

The seminar ended with encouraging discussions and consensus on potential areas and opportunities for collaboration between Indian Health organisations and the Pandemic Fund.

Launched during the Indonesian G20 Presidency, the Pandemic Fund is a collaborative partnership among donor countries, co-investors (countries eligible to receive funding), foundations and civil society organizations that finances critical investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capacities with focus on low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries.