Mysore/Mysuru: Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM) and Prasanna School of Public Health (PSPH), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (a deemed to be University) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on public health programmes in India.  The main focus of the MoU is collaboration in research, policy engagement and knowledge building programmes.

In addition, the MoU also includes exchange of faculty and experts, thereby providing an interface between academia and implementation of public health policies at grassroots level.

The MoU was signed and exchanged between Dr. Basavaraju R. Shrestha, Executive Director of GRAAM and Dr. Helmut Brand, Founding Director of PSPH at the G20’s ‘Delivering Democracy – Retrospect and Prospect’ conference, held at Bengaluru on Apr. 12.

The MoU will benefit PSPH in providing practical hands-on training to the students who are enrolling to the institution’s programmes in Public Health space. PSPH will thereby provide a stage for the students to interact with the communities at the grassroots level, include their voices in the process of development in public health space and translate evidence into policy decisions.

It also strengthens GRAAM’s outreach to the communities at the grassroots and extends the impact by enabling pragmatic research and policy-making. The faculty-exchange programme in MoU provides a forum for mutual exchange of knowledge and experiences in public health space.

The following distinguished members were present: Ritu Khanduri, Speaker, Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly; Dr. R. Balasubramaniam, Member, Capacity Building Commission, Government of India and Founder, GRAAM;  D.M. Kiran, Sous Sherpa, Civil 20; Dr. Sanjay Pattanshetty, Head of Department of Global Health Governance, PSPH;  Dr. Ananya Samajdar, Deputy Director Research, GRAAM.

GRAAM is a development research and policy engagement initiative in Mysuru. It has done several public health studies and projects for many reputed partners like World Health Organisation (WHO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Karnataka Evaluation Authority, Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynaecology and Obstetrics (JHPIEGO) and Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute (PSMRI).

One of the main projects done by GRAAM is multi-State study with implications on National Health Policy, such as the assessment of Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centres. This project was done for MoHFW.