Project News

In September 2020, Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), National Health Security Office (NHSO), and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed the Record of Discussions to establish the Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage Phase 2 for the duration of three years - from 2020 to 2023. The project was successfully launched in December 2020.

After eight months from the launch, on 30 August 2021, the first Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Meeting of GLO+UHC Phase 2 was held among the Committee members to follow up and confirm the project structure, implementation, and activity plans. In response to the alarming situation of COVID-19 in Thailand, the meeting was held online as a virtual meeting.

This first JCC meeting was chaired by Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Chairman of the Minister's Advisory Committee on Global Health, MOPH. In his opening remark, he mentioned the significant contributions of the first phase which is also utilized in the Thai response to the COVID-19 situation. Adding to this, he proposed the second phase should also contribute to the response to the pandemic. Mr. Takahiro Morita, Chief Representative of JICA Thailand Office expressed his deepest gratitude toward everyone's continuous effort and contribution to the project during this hard time in his opening remark. Dr. Takuma Kato, Chief Advisor of JICA Expert team presented the overview of the project and its activity plans. Dr. Walaiporn Patcharanarumol, Director of Global Health Division, Office of the Permanent Secretary, MOPH, and Ms. Wilailuk Wisasa, Policy Advocacy Unit, NHSO added their comments. Dr. Siraporn Sawasdivorn, Senior Advisor of Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health shared her suggestion on the project and its plans with the other JCC members and the focal persons of the project's working teams.

In this meeting, all participants reviewed and affirmed the project outputs, management flow and activity plans, for GLO+UHC Phase 2 to efficiently work to strengthen UHC in the following years. At the end of the meeting, Dr. Suwit and Mr. Morita kindly provided the closing remarks, ensuring the continuous cooperation and support between Thailand and Japan to improve UHC at a national, regional, and global level.

As the preparation of the first JCC meeting, the third Joint Project Management Team (JPMT) meeting was held online on 23 August 2021, a week before the JCC meeting. The members shared the progress of the activities and discussed about the opportunities of presenting at global and regional platforms and UHC resource centers. The meeting has confirmed that the project could flexibly collaborate with the countries which the project has not planned to work with at the beginning of the project if they offer. After a fruitful discussion, the meeting went off well thanks to the active engagement from all sides.