In the opening ceremony from Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, ED of PPD and Dr. Fouad Hamadi, Gerneral Secretary of Ministry of Health, Morocco

The workshop was declared open by Dr. Fouad Hamadi, Gerneral Secretary of Ministry of Health, Morocco in a formal Opening Ceremony which was attended by representatives from the international development agencies, UN agencies, ambassadors of the diplomatic missions of the participating countries in the training, senior officials from the Ministry of Health, Morocco and the local media including press and electronic. Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of

Participants of the workshop and representatives from the international development agencies, UN agencies, ambassadors of the diplomatic missions of the participating countries in the training and senior officials from the Ministry of Health, Morocco

PPD made a Statement in the Ceremony where he thanked the Government of Morocco and welcomed the participants wishing them successful deliberations during the three days of the workshop.

Mr. Jooseery met H.E. Dr. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, Secretary, PPD Board and Honourable Minister, Ministry of Health, Morocco in his office

During his stay in Morocco, Mr. Jooseery also met with H.E. Dr. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, Secretary, PPD Board and Honourable Minister, Ministry of Health, Morocco to express his gratitude to the Minister for accepting to host the workshop and discuss future areas of South-South Cooperation.

From the left Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD H.E. Mr. Zhang Weiqing, Chair – PPD Board and Minister, NPFPC, China H.E Dr. Zhao Baige, Vice Minister, NPFPC, China and H.E Dr. Fouad Hamadi, General Secretary Ministry of Health, Morocco.

The Board reviewed the progress made over the last nine months since Mr. Harry Sangeet Jooseery assumed office as the Executive Director and considered his suggestions and vision for the Alliance in the days to come. The Board noted with great satisfaction the substantial progress made by the Alliance over the short period of time under the leadership of the new Executive Director and his farsighted, pragmatic and forward-looking vision for the promotion of South-South Cooperation towards the achievement of ICPD and Millennium Development Goals.

The Board expressed their deepest appreciation to the Executive Director and his team and pledged all support and assistance to him in his future endeavours. The Board Members renewed commitment and support of their respective Governments towards South-South Cooperation in the greater interest of the developing countries.

The Board approved the opening of an Africa Program Office in Kampala Uganda and the following strategic directions proposed by the Executive Director as the way forward towards achieving ICPD and Millennium Development Goals for balanced and sustainable development of the Southern nations. The strategic directions are:

1. High level advocacy for the strengthening of Reproductive Health Program and for the adoption of an integrated approach for the attainment of ICPD and MDGs.
2. Integrating Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS program activities
3. Ensuring Reproductive Health Commodity Supply and Security

Honorable Board Members, PCCs, representatives from the member countries and PPD staff in the PPD’s Eleventh Annual Board Meeting at the Beijing Friendship Hotel, Beijing, China.

The Board placed on records the substantial assistance and support of United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Government of the Netherlands to Partners in Population and Development.

In the left H.E. Mr. Zhang Weiqing, Chair – PPD Board, Minister, NPFPC, China delivering opening speech in the Workshop. In the right, PCCs and other participants.

The following dignitaries delivered statements at the inaugural session:

• H.E. Mr. Jianmin Hua, State Councilor and Secretary General of the State Council of the Government of the People’s Republic of China
• H.E. Mr. Zhang Weiqing, Chair, PPD Board and Minister, NPFPC, Government of the People’s Republic of China
• H.E. Mr. Jianguo Wei, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Commerce, Government of the People’s Republic of China
• Dr. Gill Greer, Director-General, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF)
• Mr. Sultan Aziz, Director, Asia-Pacific Division, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
• Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director, Partners in Population and Development.

Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD giving speech in the opening ceremony of the Workshop

The inaugural ceremony coincided with the signing of 3 Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between Partners in Population and Development (PPD) and the Government of the People’s Republic of China in respect of the assistance to be provided by China to the PPD Member States from 2006 to 2010.

Signing Ceremony of MOUs for South-South Cooperation

The areas of assistance are:

1. Capacity Building
2. Contraceptive Supply and Security
3. Institutional Development for Reproductive Health Service Delivery

The discussions and deliberations of the workshop were conducted in the following four thematic sessions:

Session One: Strategic Directions for South-South Cooperation in Population and Development
Session Two: Experience Sharing on South-South Cooperation in Population and Development
Session Three: ODA and South-South Cooperation
Session Four: Capacity Building on Program Management

The leading resource persons of the workshop were:

• H.E. Mr. Jianguo Wei, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Commerce, China
• Professor Jay Satia, Executive Director, International Council on Management of Population Programme (ICOMP)
• Mr. Jyoti Singh, PPD Permanent Observer to the United Nations
• Dr. Nabiha Gueddana, Director General, National Family and Population Board, Tunisia
• Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, PPD Treasurer and Director, Population Secretariat, Uganda
• Dr. Hao Linna, Director General, Department of International Cooperation, NPFPC, China
• Dr. Siswanto Wilolpo, Partners Country Coordinator (PCC) and Deputy to the Family Planning and Reproductive Health, BKKBN, Indonesia
• Dr. Safa El-Baz, Assistant Minister for Health and Population, Egypt
• Mr. Peter Hall, PPD Consultant
• Dr. Fouad Hamadi, General Secretary, Ministry of Health, Morocco
• Dr. Rogelio Fernandez Castilla, Director, Technical Support Division, UNFPA HQ, New York
• Mr. Fujiya Koji, JICA, Japan
• Mr. Tewodros Melesse, Regional Director, Africa Region, IPPF

Presentations and discussions in the workshop covered the following major areas:

In the panel from left Ms. Hao Linna, Director General, Dept. of International Cooperation, NPFPC, China, Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Treasurer, PPD Board and Director of Population Secretariat, Uganda, Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director, PPD, H.E. Dr. Zhao Baige, Vice Minister, NPFPC, China, H.E. Dr. Safa El-Baz, PCC and Assistant Minister for Health and Population, Egypt, H.E. Dr. Fouad Hamadi, General Secretary, Minster of Health, Morocco.

Chaired by Dr. Hao Linna, Director-General, Department of International Cooperation of NPFPC, the Roundtable was officially opened by H.E. Dr. Zhao Baige, Vice Minister of NPFPC. Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD delivered inaugural statement in the Roundtable.

In the Roundtable, presentations were made by:

• Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Treasurer, PPD Board and Director of Population Secretariat, Uganda
• Dr. Siswanto A. Wilopo, Deputy for FP and RH of BKKBN, Indonesia
• Mr. Peter Hall, PPD Consultant
• Mr. Humberto Zardo, Pharmaceutical Operations Improvement, Irvine, California, USA
• Mr. David Smith, Chief, Procurement Services Section, UNFPA, New York
• Mr. Lester Chinery, Managing Director, ICON/IPPF
• Representatives of Manufacturers from China, India, Indonesia, South-Africa, Thailand

The Roundtable was divided into the following three substantive sessions:

• Developing Countries: RH Commodity Needs and Indigenous Suppliers’ Practice
• Quality Control of RH Commodities
• Transparency of RH Commodity Supply Chain

The discussion of the Roundtable was centred on different aspects of manufacturing, quality control, storage, marketing, distribution and the role of generic drugs towards ensuring commodity security as economic, safe and effective substitute of patented and costlier contraceptive commodities.

Partcipants of the Roundtable

It was observed that there are huge demands for RH commodity and service in the developing countries and the pressing demand has generated the development of appropriate technologies. But countries need to further enhance their management standards and enable their commodities to comply with international quality standards. Manufacturers from developing countries are ready to meet existing demands. On the other hand, procurement and service delivery agencies, faced with severe financial difficulties, desire access to low cost products of assured quality as well as supportive mechanisms such as greater use of the commercial sector to allow resources to be focused on poorer users.

Federal Minister for Population Welfare and Honorable Member of PPD Board H.E. Ch. Shahbaz Hussain presenting his Key Note speech.

Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery in his speech stated “I am impressed by the initiatives and directives adopted by the Pakistan government in dealing with the population issues and to reduce the population growth rate by 1.3 by 2020”. He said that China through PPD will donate 190,000 sets of IUDs to Pakistan. He also committed to provide a one-year scholarship for the year 2007 to a Pakistani professional who desires to pursue advanced study in demography at Cairo Demographic Center.

Executive Director of PPD Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery giving interview to a local media

The workshop urged the member states to demonstrate national commitment for creating a positive image of PPD at national and international level.

In the Opening Ceremony of the workshop from left Ms. Sylvia Vriesendorp, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), USA, Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD, Dr Zuheir Al-Kayed, Secretary General, Higher population Council, Jordan and Dr. May Hadidi, Director, Maternal and Child Health Division, Ministry of Health, Jordan

The three-day training workshop opened with a formal Opening Ceremony attended by over seventy people consisting of representatives from the international agencies, UN agencies, foreign missions and senior officials from the Ministry of Health, Jordan and local media. Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD made a welcome address in the opening ceremony. Among others who spoke were Dr. May Hadidi, Director, Maternal and Child Health Division, Ministry of Health, Amman, Jordan, Dr Zuheir Al-Kayed, Secretary General, Higher population Council and Ms. Sylvia Vriesendorp, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), USA.

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the consulting capability of reproductive health, population and development professionals from the developing countries. The course focused on reflection on past consulting experiences, the concept of consultant roles was introduced. Specific skill building exercises were also introduced to emphasize the interpersonal aspects of the consultant-client relationship.

Participants of the workshop

The participants were a mix of self-employed, government employed and private agency employed consultants. There was a considerable variation in consulting experience but mainly in the area of reproductive health, maternal and child health, family planning, demography, population policy, development, advocacy, research, training. Some participants were both providers and commissioners of technical assistance.

From left Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD, Mr. Shafiuzzaman,
Chairman and Managing Director of Hudson Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Mr. Nasim from Financial Mirror, Honourable Minister of State for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare H.E. Mr. Mizanur Rahman Sinha and Mr. Qazi Jahangir Alam, Editor of Financial Mirror.

Mr. Sangeet Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD spoke in the Roundtable on the conceptual framework of Public and Private Partnership and its relationship to Reproductive Health as a way forward.

H.E. Mr. Mizanur Rahman Sinha, Honourable Minister of State for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare graced the Roundtable as the Chief Guest.

Dr. Halida Hanum Akhter,
winner of the 2006 United Nations Population Award in the individual category

The Population Award Committee, chaired by Ambassador Judith Bahemuka of Kenya, chose the winners from 27 nominees, including top-level policy makers, researchers and health workers from around the world. The Committee consists of 10 United Nations Member States, the United Nations Population Fund, serving as its secretariat. Each winner will receive a diploma, a gold medal and an equal share of a monetary prize. The awards has been presented on Wednesday, 7 June, at the United Nations, New York.

Dr. Halida is the Director-General of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh, which was established in 1953, making it one of the world’s oldest Planned Parenthood affiliates, according to papers filed with the Award Committee. She also chairs the Board of Directors of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), based in Seattle. During her 30-year career, Dr. Halida researched and managed reproductive health programmes and technologies. In 1986, she founded the Bangladesh Institute of Research for Promotion of Essential and Reproductive Health and Technologies. At this institute, the laureate took part in key research in contraceptive effectiveness, reproductive health needs and services, and in assessments of maternal deaths in Bangladesh.

Dr. Halida worked for PPD as a Senior Reproductive Health Advisor.

Responding to calls by African Heads of State, the G8 industrialized countries and the World Health Assembly for urgent solutions to the health workforces crisis, the Alliance, whose secretariat will be hosted by WHO, will seek practical approaches such as improving working conditions and reaching more effective agreements to manage the migration of health workers. It will also serve as an international information hub and monitoring body.

Fifty-seven countries, 36 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, have severe shortages of and more than 4 million additional doctors, nurses, midwives, managers and public health workers are urgently needed to fill this gap. An adequate health workforce is defined by WHO as at least 2.3 well trained health care providers available per year 1,000 people and balanced in such a way as to reach 80 per cent of the population or more with skilled birth attendance and childhood immunization.

“The Fast Track Training Initiative” – a starting ambitious programme of the alliance aimed at achieving a rapid increase in the number of qualified health workers in countries experiences shortage by mobilizing direct financial support for training institutions, setting up partnerships between schools in industrialized and developing countries for exchanges of faculty and students and returning academic leaders in developing countries with the support of experts from around the world.

“The Global Health Workforce Alliance will bring together all the stakeholders needed to move forward on this plan with a view to sharing evidence-based practices countries can follow to expand their workforces and make them more effective,” said Dr Lincoln Chen, WHO Special Envoy for Human Resources for Health and Chair of the Alliance’s Board.

The initial partners of the Alliance include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Canadian International Development Agency, the European Commission, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, the International Council of Nurses, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, Physicians for Human Rights, the World Bank and WHO.

Its Executive Director, Prof. Francis G Omaswa, is the former Director General of Health Services of Uganda. The Government of Norway has donated US$ 3.5 million towards the Alliance’s operations during its first year. Seed money for its start-up was donated by the governments of Canada, Ireland and Sweden.

On the next day (19th May 2006) nine VLP fellows from Network Groups came in for a network group meeting facilitated by Dr. IIinigumugabo. The fellows presented their group activity reports, challenges and way forward. Dr. Aloys, in brief, shared what is expected of the network groups and how they should move ahead. The participatory discussions were appreciated by the Networks groups’ members and this has renewed their commitment and strengthened their future thoughts.

The Group members were also informed that an Evaluation will be commissioned by the Consortium and they will be contacted for their inputs about VLP and their performance. The groups committed to be available for the Evaluation activities.