Chaired by H.E. Dr Myint Htwe, Union Minister for Health and Sports, the purpose of the meeting was to update the Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) senior leadership team on the COVID-19 support that UNOPS is providing in Myanmar, through financial support from the Global Fund. The PR UNOPS team, led by Dr Attila Molnar, Programme Director of UNOPS Asia Regional Health Cluster, also updated His Excellency on the new Global Fund grant preparations and anticipated signing of the HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria grants for the period 2021–2023.
His Excellency acknowledged UNOPS and the Global Fund for supporting the purchase of emergency medical supplies and equipment, including vital, life-saving personal protective equipment (PPE) for front-line health workers, as part of Myanmar’s COVID-19 response. He acknowledged that the MOHS is efficiently utilizing the medical supplies and equipment.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar in March 2020, the Global Fund immediately responded to the request of the MOHS to approve US$ 7.1 million, under its grant flexibility, as its initial investment to the emergency procurement response.
The Global Fund subsequently launched its new COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) to support countries to respond adequately to COVID-19 with additional funds. An initial US$ 10.5 million was provided to invest in the procurement of more PPE, diagnostic equipment and supplies. A further US$ 7.5 million was made available to the MOHS to mitigate COVID-19 impacts, to continue to reinforce the national response efforts, and to carry out urgent improvements in health and community systems. Altogether, the Global Fund approved U$ 18 million in additional funds through the C19RM, over and above the initial US$ 7.1 million emergency support, to reach a total of US$ 25.1 million extended to the MOHS through Global Fund resources.
With the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Rakhine State, UNOPS has also supported the MOHS in increasing its testing capacity. PR UNOPS supported the provision of GeneXpert machines and Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test kits to Sittwe, Kyauk Phyu, Maungdaw, Mrauk-U and Thandwe townships to meet the increasing demand for testing.
MOHS request to UNOPS and the Global Fund
During the meeting, His Excellency requested UNOPS to help improve the Ministry’s current system of procurement and distribution of medical supplies and urged the procurement experts of UNOPS to jointly review and collaborate with the Ministry’s central procurement unit towards strengthening its delivery capacity.
To date, UNOPS has successfully delivered 89 categories of medical supplies and equipment as part of its emergency procurement support for COVID-19. His Excellency highlighted the need to urgently deliver the 100 intensive care ventilators requested under the COVID-19 emergency procurement, to which UNOPS was able to respond that 45 of the 100 ventilators have been delivered, with the remainder in the pipeline and scheduled for delivery soon.
Dr Attila Molnar said, “PR UNOPS will continue to be a committed long-term partner to the Ministry of Health and Sports and will continue to avail its specialist procurement services to the Ministry, particularly in this critical period of need and beyond.”
New grants for 2021–2023
During the meeting, the UNOPS team also updated on the new Global Fund grant preparations and anticipated signing of the HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria grants for the period 2021–2023. The team briefed His Excellency on progress of the grant preparation, Sub-Recipients selection, work plan and budget development.
His Excellency then agreed to UNOPS’ request to convene a video conferencing meeting between the Ministry and UNOPS once a month, to continue to receive such updates and to engage and discuss other areas in mutual support of MOHS public health programme delivery, including for the COVID-19 response.
