Your Excellency. Ms Lindiwe Zulu, MP, Minister of Social Development, Government of South and Africa and Hon, Chair of PPD Board
Your Excellency. Dr. Hasto Wardoyo, Chairperson, National Population and Family Planning Board, Government of Indonesia and Hon. Treasurer of PPD Board
Mr. Mr. Arthur Erken, Director of Policy and Strategy Division, UNFPA,
Ms. Chowaa Dassouky, Director of Population Policy, League of Araba State
Prof. Rizal Damanik, Deputy Director of International Training and Research, Center, BKKBN
Honorable PPD Board Members, Distinguished Partner Country Coordinators, Respected Consultants and Discussant, Dear Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen
Thank you so much for joining today’s webinar on sharing best practices in the fields of Reproductive Health, Family Planning and Population. We are proud to organize this important gathering with the technical support from Indonesian Board of Family Planning and Population (BKKBN) and the generous contributions from UNFPA.
As you may know, one of the key interventions of Partners in Population and Development is the exchange of information and sharing of strategies and approaches with member and non-member countries from the global south which are crucial for promoting South-South cooperation and build sustained partnership. In this context and despite the pandemic situation which challenged all nations and turned our lives into new norms, PPD with the financial support from UNFPA, the contributions from Partner Country Coordinators and efforts from Consultants has documented nine (9) best practices from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Morocco, Vietnam and Thailand. In 2019 and with support from UNFPA, PPD documented 2 best practices from Kenya and Tunisia and were published in SOUTH-SOUTH GALAXY of United Nations Office for SSC. Today, we are going to learn how PPD member countries have succeeded in implementing their RH/FP and population programs and policies with effective strategies and approaches that can be replicable to other developing countries.
Excellency, Distinguished participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,
There is an urgent need to identify solutions in population and development and reproductive health for countries in the South during and at post-COVID-19. In order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and address the COVID-19 impact, it is important for developing countries to adopt and strengthen national policies to advance SSTC, and to enhance the capacity of national and sub-national coordinating mechanisms, as appropriate, in order to improve policy coordination, sharing of knowledge, lessons learned and good practices, and the adaptation of such practices that also encouraged by the outcome document of the BAPA+40 UN Conference held in March 2019 in Buenos Aires.
The challenges that humanity is currently facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic require concerted national actions, global solidarity and efficient and transformational south-south and triangular cooperation to ensure that we are on the right track to achieve the Nairobi Commitments within the context of SDGs and leave no one behind. Sharing effective and replicable practices is a path to follow for the improvement of policies and programs in developing countries.
The Objectives of today’s webinars:
- To showcase and disseminate 11 Best Practices among the PPD Countries
- To create demand among countries for replication of Best Practices
- Establish virtual forum for exchange of knowledge and experiences among the countries for more SSC programs.
Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The purpose of this webinar is to develop a better understanding of existing and successful ideas and practices with technical, legal, and policy options, as well as promoting access to scientific and technical data, particularly for strengthen the knowledge management among southern countries. We have assembled a broad and diverse group of well-informed participants for this webinar to learn, share and contribute.
I hope that we can do effective knowledge management with your active participation, looking not only at what we do – but the way how we do it.
I wish to inform the audience that following this webinar, all Best Practices will be published in a compendium showing that SSC is about solutions and actions. I wish to express my thanks and gratitude to Bob Gillespie, President of the Gillespie Foundation for his financial support to PPD to publish the compendium. Thank you Bob for your continued support to PPD since the launching of our organization in Cairo in 1994.
Before concluding, I wish to reiterate my sincerest appreciation to the Hon. Chair of PPD Board Ms Lindiwe Zulu who accepted to grace by her presence this webinar despite her busy schedule. I also thank Mr Hasto Wardoyo, Hon. Treasurer of PPD for his presence with us and for the support from BKKBN. My thanks and gratitude go also to Mr Arthur Erken, Director of Policy and strategy Division of UNFPA and to Inter Country Cooperation Unit team of UNFPA led by Mr Yanming Lin. I also thank Ms Chouaa Dassouky, Director of Population Policies in the League of Arab states. I thank Prof Rizal Damanik, PCC and Deputy Director of International training and Research Center of BKKBN, who will moderate the panel of today’s webinar. Many Thanks to the PCCs, the Consultants and all participants for their presence. Last but not least, I wish to thank my colleagues in the PPD Secretariat for their efforts and hard work to prepare this webinar.
Thank you for your attention