Patna: Former Microsoft CEO and co-founder of the world’s biggest charitable foundation Bill Gates today called on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and lauded the state government’s efforts in the field of health and nutrition.

He also announced his foundation’s commitment to the state’s development priorities, besides congratulating Kumar on his re-election as the chief minister of Bihar. This was the first meeting of Gates with Kumar after the latter returned to power last month with a huge mandate.

“It’s heartening to see the significant progress Bihar has made in improving its health and nutrition outcomes, especially for women, mothers, newborns and children in the past five years,” Gates, who is the co-chair and trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said.

The foundation has been working closely with the Government of Bihar and other partners since 2010 to improve equitable access to public health and nutrition services to mothers and children across the state.

“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 (diarrhoea, pneumonia and tuberculosis) and elimination of Kala-azar, and also enhance support through technical assistance in sanitation, digital financial inclusion and agriculture to achieve their public health and development goals,” added Gates, whose meeting with the chief minister was part of his three-day visit to India.

Bihar chief minister said the government intended to work closely with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accomplish health, nutrition and development goals. “Health and nutrition are critical markers of Bihar’s progress, and the Government of Bihar is committed to ensuring equitable health and nutrition services and increased health financing to bring about greater improvements in health and nutrition outcomes so that we can make a significant difference to all. We need to strengthen our health system so that marginalised communities can receive universal health care,” said Kumar.

Kumar added the state government was open to the suggestion of involving high quality private sector operators under requisite public-private partnerships (PPP) to deliver high quality neonatal care while requesting the Foundation to provide technical support. He assured the Foundation that he was willing to make structural changes in the public health systems.

Under part of the plan, officials from Bihar Administrative Services and from the Department of Health may be deputed in the Foundation-supported Technical Support Unit (TSU) to gain knowledge and experience about global best practices which can then be replicated in Bihar.

In order to bring about systemic changes in the health system, it was agreed that these officials would be posted in the department for longer periods of time. It was also decided that a similar model like the state TSU should be set up at the district level to provide support to district and block level officials. It was also decided that services of top global subject experts would be made available to the departments, through the Foundation, so that appropriate policy inputs and Bihar-specific programme designs could be conceptualised and implemented.

The chief minister also informed Gates that his government was committed to addressing the issues of open defecation by agreeing to construct toilets and provide clean drinking water in each household and providing drains and roads in each village, all of which have a substantial impact on health outcomes. He urged Gates to look into the aspect of providing technological solutions in making enabling payment systems so that the health workers and the general public at large could benefit from direct cash transfers with no loss of time or leakages of any sort.