| National
South-South Support Structure Workshop
10
December 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Speech
by
H.E. Prof. A. F. M. Ruhal Haque, MP
Honorable Minister, Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare, Government
of the People’s Republic of
Bangladesh
I
am happy to be here to open the “National
South-South Support Structure Workshop”
jointly organized by Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare and PPD. On behalf
of the Government of Bangladesh, I
extend my heartiest welcome to all
the participants and thank them for
attending this promising event.
The Government of Bangladesh is proud
to be a cherished partner of PPD from
its inception in 1994 at the International
Conference on Population and Development
(ICPD). Since then, we have passed
a long way together, and have been
successful in partnership to advance
the agenda of reproductive health,
family planning, population and development
in the context of achieving the ICPD
and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
As
you all may know, the PPD Secretariat
was established in Dhaka in September
1996. Since then, being the host country
of the Secretariat, Bangladesh Government
has been providing a core support
in different ways beyond the promised
annual contribution of 20,000 US Dollars
and has contributed around 600,000
US Dollars for the operation of the
secretariat in Dhaka. Bangladesh government
has provided all necessary support
to the installation of the Secretariat
including all amenities. Bangladesh
has also offered many fellowships
to PPD member countries. Standing
here in front of you, once again I
proudly want to declare that we are
indeed honored to be partners with
this innovative organization playing
a very significant part in achieving
its agenda.
In keeping with the commitment, the
Government of Bangladesh has handed
over 64 decimal of land to PPD Secretariat.
The Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare paid US$ 171,000 to procure
this land from the Ministry of Housing
and Public Works. In the present market
the value of this land is about US$
5.7 million.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bangladesh
is the seventh most populous country
in the world. Around 140 million lives
in an area of 144,000 sq. km., making
Bangladesh the most densely populated
country in the world excepting some
island states. The population of Bangladesh
will increase to around 250 million
by the year 2050. There are serious
consequences of this rapid population
growth. The land-man ratio continues
to decline considerably. The per-capita
income remains low. The levels of
savings and investments are highly
inadequate. There is considerable
unemployment and underemployment.
There still remains wide spread malnutrition.
Inadequate resources hinder the training
for service providers and provision
of facilities to expand family planning
into reproductive health services.
Thus huge population of this country
is exerting great pressure on its
social and economic development.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Bangladesh
Family Planning program is however
considered to be a success story for
the region. During the past decades,
contraceptive prevalence has increased
from less than 8 percent to 56 percent.
This has resulted in a sharp fertility
decline, with the total fertility
rate dropping from over 6 in 1976
to less than 3 at present. All these
have been achieved, despite, unfavorable
socio-economic conditions. It is also
important to recognize that all these
have been possible within the bounds
of the existing social and religious
norms; and such norms would continue
to guide. However there are new challenges
coming up related to human resources,
quality of service and managerial
capacity which this government is
keen to address.
Given the current state of global
economic crisis and lack of funding
for reproductive health and family
planning program we, the governments
of developing countries have to find
a sustainable solutions from among
ourselves. There is no room for complacency
with whatever success that has already
been achieved. We have already identified
the key programmatic challenges and
the needed priority action areas.
We continue to act upon them.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Within
the short period my government has
been in power we have already taken
some very important decisions.
-
Towards keeping our Prime Minister’s
commitment to create a ‘Digital
Bangladesh’, we are providing
health facilities with internet
connectivity and video conferencing
facilities so that doctors can consult,
diagnose and treat the hardly reached
population.
-
We are going to recruit 6000 doctors
and 3000 new nurses.
- We
are re-opening 10,000 community
clinics which were not being utilized
- Field
level health workers will be trained
as Community Based Skilled Birth
Attendants and by the year 2010,
50% of the deliveries will be by
trained hands
- We
will ensure that reproductive health
commodities supply is secured
- A
condom factory will be operable
soon to meet the domestic demands
and to reduce donor dependency
- My
Government will also upgrade 1500
union level Health and Family Welfare
Centers
We have lots of challenges ahead to
reach the goals set by our HNPSP by
2011. We have only two years in hand
to reach these goals. We need to partner
with each other to work together for
the benefits of our citizens.
The South has got expertise and knowhow
and which we need to take maximum
advantage of these assets to address
our common problems. The South-South
Collaborative partnership can be very
useful way to revitalize our success
story at this state of emergency.
The Government of Bangladesh would
be willing to share with other countries,
especially of the south, the various
success and lessons learned from our
programs as well as our modest expertise
and also to learn from others to solve
our problems
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It
is the common responsibility of all
of us to work toward the solution.
Let us all Pledge to work together
for our common future, which assures
a better life for all of us as well
as for the generations to come
I welcome the setting up of a National
Task Force of Stakeholders in Bangladesh
to synergize our efforts to address
national concerns. I wish all members
of this Task Force to contribute effectively
in proposing meaningful solutions
to our program for the reinforcement
of South-South Cooperation. I wish
to thank PPD for taking this loadable
initiative of setting up this Task
Force and wish plenty of success to
it.
Thank
you once again.
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