EC wants to give 10m euros to improve health surveillance
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Doulot Akter Mala
The European Commission (EC) has expressed its willingness to provide 10 million euros to improve the country's health surveillance and food safety measures, which are the areas of major concern for the government, officials said.
The EC will provide 7.9 million euros for food safety, 1.4 million euros for development of health surveillance network and 0.7 million to implement maternal health voucher scheme (MHVS), they said.
Ministries of health and family planning, food and disaster management will be the project implementing authorities.
The officials said Economic Relations Division (ERD) will sign a new financing agreement with the EC after receiving consent from the ministries.
The ERD under the finance ministry will have to sign the agreement with the EC by this month as per the condition set by the financier, an official said.
He said the ERD held a meeting last week to finalise the draft agreement on the assistance. It has already sent the draft for law ministry’s vetting.
The EC has proposed the financing plan on contribution agreement with world health organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Officials said the original project was UPHCP-II (urban primary health care project) under health, nutrition and population sector programme. As the EC found similar projects running in the country it has proposed those three projects.
"To avoid overlapping on the project, the EC in February last proposed the three new projects instead of the UPHCP-II," an official said.
The ambassador of EC last month informed the ERD to complete all procedures regarding signing of the contract agreement by November 24 to get the financial assistance.
The EC and the ERD signed the health nutrition and population sector programme (HNPSP) in July, 2006.
The European Commission (EC) has expressed its willingness to provide 10 million euros to improve the country's health surveillance and food safety measures, which are the areas of major concern for the government, officials said.
The EC will provide 7.9 million euros for food safety, 1.4 million euros for development of health surveillance network and 0.7 million to implement maternal health voucher scheme (MHVS), they said.
Ministries of health and family planning, food and disaster management will be the project implementing authorities.
The officials said Economic Relations Division (ERD) will sign a new financing agreement with the EC after receiving consent from the ministries.
The ERD under the finance ministry will have to sign the agreement with the EC by this month as per the condition set by the financier, an official said.
He said the ERD held a meeting last week to finalise the draft agreement on the assistance. It has already sent the draft for law ministry’s vetting.
The EC has proposed the financing plan on contribution agreement with world health organisation (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Officials said the original project was UPHCP-II (urban primary health care project) under health, nutrition and population sector programme. As the EC found similar projects running in the country it has proposed those three projects.
"To avoid overlapping on the project, the EC in February last proposed the three new projects instead of the UPHCP-II," an official said.
The ambassador of EC last month informed the ERD to complete all procedures regarding signing of the contract agreement by November 24 to get the financial assistance.
The EC and the ERD signed the health nutrition and population sector programme (HNPSP) in July, 2006.