PPD :: Newsletter : Issue 25 - January

PPD represented at the First Regular Session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Program and the UNFPA

Mr. Jyoti Shankar Singh, PPD’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations represented PPD at the First Regular Session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Development Program and the UNFPA on 19-22 January 2010 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

In the opening speech to the Board, Dr. Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA mentioned, “UNFPA is committed to results and the implementation of their Strategic Plan from 2008 - 2013. ...to help ensure this, UNFPA will give special attention in 2010 to a number of areas.” Dr Obaid also gave an indication that the South-South and triangular cooperation will be one of them.

In his statement at the Board, Mr. Singh pointed out, “PPD celebrated its own 15th

Dr. Thoraya Obaid

anniversary in 2009; and its record of activities, undertaken in cooperation with national governments, UNFPA andseveral foundations, suggests that South-South cooperation is becoming an increasingly important modality of international cooperation on population and development.” He added that PPD’s activities and programs will expand in the coming years, with increasing support from PPD members and involvement of non-member countries.

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.

Advance Family Planning (AFP) Project launched in Dar es Salam, Tanzania

AFP project was launched in Dar es Salam Tanzania on 26 January, 2010. More than 100 participants from different organization, government officials, eminent experts in Reproductive Health and journalists attended the project launching program. The Executive Director of PPD Mr. Harry S. Jooseery together with Dr. Nazrul Islam and Dr. Farah Naz Hossain of PPD Secretariat attended this event.

AFP project launching program, Dar es Salam Tanzania

Chief Guest, Ms. Maro, Director of Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance of Tanzania in her speech stated that the AFP project comes at an opportune time to build on the increased recognition at the country level for the need to invest in family planning in order to improve the health of Tanzanians and achieve the MDGs.

Mr. Robert Cunnane, the USAID Tanzania Mission Director, set the stage for the launch and said that Advance Family planning project is timely because it has come at a time when the US government is coming back to take on a leadership role in family planning.

Mr. Duff Gillespie, AFP Project Director presented a summary of the AFP project. He pointed out that the meeting organized by AFP consortium was meant to actually be a consultative series of meetings to get every ones ideas and views. The project will

Mr. Duff Gillespie

have a focus in three countries: Indonesia, Tanzania and Uganda. The project is meant to encourage a move from a donor driven initiative and increase local priority control given to family planning.

Jose “Oying” Rimon II, Senior Program Officer, Global Health Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation stated that the focus in global health policy and advocacy is revitalizing family planning on the global agenda in recognition of the critical role that investment in FP/RH plays in achieving the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

This $12 million AFP project was announced on 18 November 2009 in the context of the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Kampala, Uganda

Mr. Jose “Oying” Rimon II

by The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project, Advance Family Planning, will focus on sub-Saharan Africa and Asia for next three years.

Documenting Best Practices in Population and Reproductive Health:

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is in the process of documenting a series of Best Practices in its member states in the area of Reproductive Health, Population and Development. The process started in 2008 by an invitation to the member states of PPD to submit innovative and successful program. Eventually, PPD received 84 submissions from which 11 were selected by a group of experts for further documentation.

Participants of the meeting on documenting national successful approaches in Dhaka

Accordingly, PPD organized a technical meeting to discuss the outline of the draft papers on National successful approaches in population and reproductive health in Dhaka at Hotel Sheraton on 25-26 February, 2010. 11 draft papers were presented in the two days meeting by a group of consultants. The main purpose of the meeting was to come up with well articulated papers for each country that would eventually be further developed into full fledged Case Studies of Best Practice. Dr. S.L.N. Rao was the lead consultant and has spearheaded the process since 2008.

Mr. Denis Nkala

Mr. Rabbi Royan

Mr. Arthur Erken

This meeting was supported by UNFPA, Packard Foundation. Mr. Denis Nkala Chief, South-South Unit (Asia & the Pacific) UNDP, Regional Centre in Bangkok, Mr. Rabbi Royan Technical Advisor, UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office and Mr. Arthur Erken Country Representative UNFPA Bangladesh also attended in this two day meeting .

Assessing Reproductive Health needs in Bangladesh through South-South Cooperation

To promote bilateral relationship between China and Bangladesh and as per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between PPD and Government of People’s Republic of China, a team of Chinese delegates visited Bangladesh to assess the Reproductive Health needs of the country. This need assessment will be the basis for reinforcing cooperation between China and Bangladesh on area related to reproductive health, population and development. China has already agreed to provide equipment worth of US$ 500,000 to Bangladesh to reinforce one Reproductive Health Center in Dhaka. The review team visited different Reproductive Health Program in Bangladesh. Further Collaboration in the area of exchange explores technology and service provider is expected.

The review team was led by Mr. Cai Jianhua, Director General Training and Communication Center of NPFPC with a high profile team members constituting of Ms. Huang Huijuan Deputy Director General Population International Training Center, Professor Wu Junqing and Professor Chen Linan from Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research.

Chinese review team during their visit to the PPD Secretariat

Chinese delegation visited PPD on 4 February 2010. The delegation was exposed to PPD activities and challenges and a lively discussion followed on urgent Reproductive Health issues that are concerns for Bangladesh and other developing countries.