PPD :: Newsletter : Issue 24 - November

International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP): Research and Best practices

Executive Director and the Africa Regional Director of PPD participated in an exciting and historic International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Kampala, Uganda. Over 1,200 leading policymakers, researchers, academics and health professionals from 59 countries attended the Conference from 15 to 18 November, and shared the latest scientific findings and refocus the world’s attention on family planning’s contribution to development. The ceremony was opened up the First lady Mrs. Janet Museveni, who called upon for a total support of all men’s involvement in Family planning as well as reminding fellow women (Nurses and Mid wives) to save the lives of the mothers who visit the health centers so that Uganda can achieve the MDG-5.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Makerere University's School of Public Health, and the Implementing Best Practices Initiative organized the conference together with PPD around research and best practices in family planning. One result of the conference was a "Call to Action" re-affirming global commitments to family planning.

“Family planning has been a development and a public health success,” said Werner Haug, Director of the Technical Division of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, who delivered a keynote speech at The International Conference on Family Planning: Research and Best Practices. “Giving people access to voluntary family planning saves lives and can help break the cycle of poverty, slow population growth and ease the pressure on the environment. It is a cost-effective development investment.”

New Collaboration: Advance Family Planning Project (AFP) launched

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced on 18 November at the ICFP conference a new three-year, $12 million project to advance reproductive health and family planning efforts in regions with the greatest need. The project, Advance Family Planning, will focus on sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

“If we are serious about achieving the health component of the Millennium Development Goals,” said Jose Rimon, of the Gates Foundation, “we need to reinvest in and revitalize family planning and reproductive health. This project can succeed only if the southern countries are united in owning the issues themselves”.

Duff Gillespie, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, “The people who will really do the work and make it a success are individual champions in the countries they’re working in. We see our role as facilitating. We want to identify local champions and help them.”

The Executive Director of PPD together with the Regional Director of the PPD ARO participated in a briefing of stakeholders for the AFP project held on 19th November in Kampala. The AFP project is evidence based effort to advocate for greater commitment, ownership and partnership to promote family planning in the developing countries and has a strong component of South-South Cooperation a vehicle to achieve its aim. PPD is in unique position as an intergovernmental organization to promote South–South Cooperation in the field of Reproductive Health, Population and Development. One of the key partners of the AFP project is PPD and Executive Director of PPD stated that “PPD is proud to be associated with the project and intends to raise the voice of the South in the promotion of Reproductive Health and Family Planning in developing country.”

The High Level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation

Executive Director Mr. Harry Jooseery represented PPD at the high-level United Nations conference on South-South Cooperation and shared the PPD‘s experiences in South-South Cooperation in Population and Development sector. From last fifteen year a number of South-South Cooperation programs, projects, activities and events were successfully implemented by PPD addressing the family planning, reproductive health, and safe motherhood and HIV/AIDS programs. The high-level United Nations conference was hosted by Kenya (PPD’s Member State and Secretary of PPD board) and held at the UN’s Nairobi headquarters, the 1-3 December 2009.

At the opening session of the meeting, ASHA-ROSE MIGIRO, Deputy-Secretary-General of the United Nations, conveyed greetings from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and said that the demands of our deeply interconnected world call for practical solutions, reinforced by stronger South-South and North-South partnerships,". RAILA AMOLO ODINGA, Prime Minister of Kenya, officially opened the conference on 1 December 2009. It consisted of plenary meetings and interactive multi-sector stakeholder round tables on two sub-themes: (i) Strengthening of the role of the United Nations system in supporting South-South and triangular cooperation; and (ii) South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Development: complementarities, specificities, challenges and opportunities”.

The conference recognized South-South cooperation as an important element of international cooperation for development, which offers viable opportunities for developing countries in their individual and collective pursuits of sustained economic growth and sustainable development, and emphasized that South-South cooperation is not a substitute for, but is complementary to North-South cooperation.

Member States of the United Nations system, as well as intergovernmental organizations with observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and United Nation’s specialized agencies and other entities of the United Nations system were on the participants list.

PPD and Nigeria government arrange a whole day workshop

In order to build national ownership for South -South Cooperation and synergize efforts with all stakeholders involved in Reproductive Health, Population and Development programs, PPD proposed to build up National Support Structure in its member states. National Task Forces are constituted with involvement of key actors at the National levels. The Partner Country Coordinator in each PPD member country heads the National Task Force.

In this context, PPD and National Planning Commission (NPC) Nigeria organized a one-day workshop on South-South Cooperation in Abuja Nigeria. The Minister of National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr Shamsudeen Usman made the announcement at the workshop that Nigeria loses about 150 billion naira ($1 billion) every year to malaria and records maternal mortality rate at 800 per 100,000 for more than a decade, with infant mortality rate at around 80 per 1,000.

Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director, Partners in Population and Development (PPD), said that reproductive health situation in Nigeria was still precarious. He added that Nigerian population was projected at 155 million in 2009, noting that the country, which was by far the most populous in Africa, “still faces challenges of meeting the MDGs”. He called for more investment in the country's health and social welfare sector. “The MDGs cannot be achieved unless we invest to improve the quality of life of the people; we need to synergies our effort and raise a common voice to meet the challenges ahead”, he said.

The workshop was attended by a cross-section of participants from the Government, UN Agencies, Diplomatic Missions, Development Partners, NGOs, Civil-society Organizations (CSOs) and press and electronic media.

Government of Bangladesh constituted a National Task Force

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, in collaboration with Partners in Population and Development (PPD) organized a National South-South Support Structure Workshop on Thursday, 10 December 2009 at the Auditorium of International Jute Study Group (IJSG), Farm Gate, Dhaka.

National South-South Support Structure Workshop, Dhaka

H.E. Prof. Dr. A F M Ruhal Haque, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Board Member of PPD inaugurated the Programme as the Chief Guest. The Workshop was addressed by the Executive Director of PPD Mr. Harry Jooseery, Mr. Shaikh Altaf Ali, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Md. Serajul Huq Khan, PCC of PPD and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Mr. Mohammad Abdul Qayum, Chair of the National Task Force for South-South Cooperation and Director General of Family Planning, Directorate of Family Planning and Mr. Arthur Erken, Country Representative, UNFPA Bangladesh. The workshop was attended by a cross-section of participants from the Government, UN Agencies, Diplomatic Missions, Development Partners, NGOs, Civil-society Organizations (CSOs) and press and electronic media.

The Honorable Minister stated, “Government believes that the developing countries have great potential of sharing between and among themselves their experiences as well as utilize their technical resources for training, research, etc. under the umbrella of South-South partnership”.

Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD in his statement said “the South-South cooperation entails we have the skill, capabilities and expertise, and if we can galvanize all this efforts then we can improve our destiny.” He added that PPD commits to provide support and technical assistance to Bangladesh under the South–South Cooperation. He mentioned that a MoU has been signed between China and PPD to provide technical assistance to Bangladesh through PPD.

The purpose of the Workshop was to introduce the Bangladesh Task Force members and help them to understand the concept of south-south cooperation, as well as to build national ownership for South -South Cooperation. Mr. Mohammad Abdul Qayum, Director General of Family Planning, Directorate of Family Planning is the Chair of the National Task Force which endeavors to enhance South-South Cooperation in the field of Population, Reproductive Health and Development. This Task Force will work as a platform to bring the policymakers, INGOs/NGOs, CSOs, researchers, journalists and private entrepreneurs together to engage in thoughtful public dialogue and cooperative efforts.

Government of Bangladesh officially handed over 64 decimal of land to PPD

H.E. Prof. Dr. A.F.M Ruhal Haque, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Board Member of PPD handed a document related to the donation of 64 decimal of land to the Executive Director of PPD to construct a permanent secretariat at national Task Force Workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 10 December 2009.

H.E. Prof. Dr. A F M Ruhal Haque offcially handed over the land document to the Executive Director of PPD

The Honorable Minister in his statement mentioned that Bangladesh is proud to host the Secretariat of PPD in Dhaka, an inter-governmental alliance of 25 developing countries covering more than 57% of world population.

Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD in his statement he said “Bangladesh is one of the 10 founder members of PPD and hosting the PPD permanent Secretariat since 1996. The history of PPD is hence marked by the extraordinary contribution of Bangladesh.”

South-South Day and 15th anniversary of PPD observed

On Saturday, 19 December 2009, Partners in Population and Development (PPD) celebrated the South-South Cooperation Day and 15th anniversary of PPD with due fervor and solemnity which was concluded with a Press Meeting with leading Media of Bangladesh at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel. The Daily Star (a leading News paper in Bangladesh ) published a special supplementary page on this occasion and different media give a special coverage. Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD addressed the meeting and exchanged views with the Press. PPD International Program officer Amadou Moreau made a presentation during the event.

Mr. Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of PPD briefing the Press

The Executive Director stated that PPD is a unique intergovernmental organization which is exclusively mandated to promote South-South Cooperation in Reproductive Health, Population and Development. He added that, “We must also open the South-South agenda to the development partners in the North, traditional multilateral cooperation systems and South-North-South triangular arrangements.”

He underscored the importance of media in all development endeavors and said it has a major role to play in shaping, facilitating and promoting South-South cooperation by highlighting not only the development challenges of the south, but also the wealth of solutions that exist among fellow developing countries. He further stressed that, “In all its forms and manifestations, the media is a very powerful tool, especially in this era of globalization, that can purposefully help in finding answers to the world’s most pressing development challenges.”