{"id":6522,"date":"2026-09-10T12:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=6522"},"modified":"2026-09-10T12:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T12:59:18","slug":"govt-deepens-gates-foundation-ties-on-health-finance-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=6522","title":{"rendered":"Govt deepens Gates Foundation ties on health, finance, AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0
\nGovt deepens Gates Foundation ties on <a href="https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/?p=6504" title="World Mental Health<\/a> Day webinar”>health<\/a>, finance, AI<\/p>\n

MG News<\/strong>| September 10, 2026 at 03:45 PM GMT+05:00<\/p>\n

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September 10, 2026 (MLN):<\/b> The government held
\nwide-ranging discussions with the Gates Foundation on deepening collaboration
\nacross human capital, health, financial inclusion and digital innovation, with
\nthe Foundation’s South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa programme, combining cash transfers,
\nnutrition support, livelihoods training and access to citizen facilitation
\ncentres for women, expected to reach around 170,000 women and 450,000 children
\nthis year.<\/p>\n

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator
\nMuhammad Aurangzeb met a high-level Gates Foundation delegation led by Dr Anita
\nZaidi, President, Gender Equality Division, along with Kalpana Kochhar, Interim
\nPresident, Global Policy and Advocacy Division, at the Finance Division, said a
\npress release issued<\/p>\n

The Finance Minister welcomed the delegation and
\nappreciated the Gates Foundation’s continued support and engagement with
\nPakistan, emphasizing the value of further collaboration through knowledge
\nsharing, technical expertise and international experience<\/p>\n

Kalpana Kochhar briefed the Minister on the Foundation’s
\ngrowing engagement in Pakistan, particularly in human capital, child health,
\nnutrition, maternal health and women’s economic participation, also
\nhighlighting nationwide nutrition efforts through the UNICEF “Livelihood
\n2.0” facility aimed at improving access to nutrition commodities and
\naddressing childhood stunting<\/p>\n

Dr Anita Zaidi briefed the Minister on the Foundation’s
\nmaternal health work and the use of artificial intelligence to improve health
\noutcomes, highlighting the LUMS AI Hub’s collaboration with provincial
\ngovernments on personalized solutions for women and families during pregnancy<\/a>
\nand delivery, along with AI applications designed for low-connectivity
\nenvironments and basic Android devices, including local-language capabilities.<\/p>\n

The discussion covered population growth and its
\nimplications for maternal and child health, nutrition, poverty and girls’
\neducation<\/p>\n

The Minister briefed the delegation on the National
\nPopulation Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, emphasizing
\nfederal-provincial coordination, women’s education and empowerment, greater
\nworkforce participation and birth spacing, including through engagement with
\nreligious scholars and other stakeholders<\/p>\n

Senator Aurangzeb also highlighted the importance of
\ndomestic investor confidence, privatization and expenditure reforms, including
\nrightsizing and greater use of digital technologies to improve government
\nefficiency<\/p>\n

He outlined the government’s Access to Finance agenda
\nfor SMEs, agriculture and other underserved segments, with a focus on digital
\nfinancial pathways, improved data exchanges and cash-flow-based lending, while
\non revenue mobilization he emphasized enforcement, facilitation and trust
\nalongside digitalization and automation of tax assessments and audits<\/p>\n

The Gates Foundation representatives welcomed progress
\nin Pakistan’s financial sector and expressed interest in supporting greater
\naccess to finance, particularly for SMEs, through improved information flows,
\ndigital footprints and cash-flow-based lending, highlighting the potential of
\ndigital and data-driven solutions to strengthen financing pathways for small
\nbusinesses and retailers<\/p>\n

The two sides also discussed opportunities in
\nagriculture, the digital economy and private-sector-led investment, with the
\nMinister highlighting growing interest in private equity and briefing the
\ndelegation on the government’s efforts to strengthen Pakistan’s private equity
\necosystem and mobilize greater long-term domestic and international capital for
\nproductive investment<\/p>\n

The Minister appreciated the Gates Foundation’s
\ncontinued engagement and the value of its financial support, technical
\nexpertise and knowledge sharing in advancing Pakistan’s development priorities<\/p>\n

Dr Zaidi reaffirmed the Foundation’s commitment to
\nPakistan, and both sides agreed to deepen collaboration across human capital,
\nhealth, financial inclusion and digital innovation<\/p>\n

The delegation included Mr. Syed Ali Mahmood, Senior
\nProgram Officer, Inclusive Financial Services; Ms. Aisha Salman, Program
\nOfficer, Leadership Engagement Implementation, Gender Equality; Mr. Ammar Khan,
\nSenior Program Officer, Development Policy & Finance; Mr. Jamal Khan,
\nDeputy Director and South & Southeast Asia Lead, Global Policy &
\nAdvocacy; Mr. Waqas Ul Hasan, Chief Executive Officer, Karandaaz Pakistan; Mr.
\nTaimoor Ali, Group Head, Karandaaz Pakistan; and Mr. Sharjeel Murtaza, Chief
\nDigital Officer, Karandaaz Pakistan. Senior officials of the Finance Division
\nalso attended.<\/p>\n

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September 10, 2026 (MLN): The government held wide-ranging discussions with the Gates Foundation on deepening collaboration across human capital, health, financial inclusion and digital innovation, with the Foundation’s South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa programme, combining cash transfers, nutrition support, livelihoods training and access to citizen facilitation centres for women, expected to reach around 170,000 women and 450,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1534,1536,1535,1439,492],"class_list":["post-6522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-news","tag-deepens","tag-foundation","tag-gates","tag-govt","tag-ties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6526,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522\/revisions\/6526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumeamara.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}