FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)

Ques: What is PPD?
Ans: Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an Inter-governmental Alliance of 27 developing countries with a mission to expand and improve South-South collaboration in the fields of family planning and reproductive health, population and development through the governments, NGOs and private sector organizations. It was created at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994.

Ques: Who are the members of this Alliance?

Ans: PPD Members are developing countries committed to the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, willing to provide political, technical and financial support to South-South Cooperation.

While there were only 10 developing countries at the time of formation of the Organization in 1994, over the years PPD’s membership has increased to 27 developing countries across Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America covering nearly 60% of total world population. The PPD member countries are:

Asia:

Bangladesh
China
India
Indonesia
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Viet Nam

Latin America/Caribbean:

Colombia
Mexico

Middle East/North Africa:

Egypt
Morocco
Tunisia
Yemen
Jordan

Sub-Saharan Africa:

Côte d’Ivoire
Ethiopia
The Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Mali
Uganda
Benin
Senegal
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Nigeria

Ques: Where it is located?

Ans: The Secretariat of PPD is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. However, it has a Regional Office located in Kampala, Uganda, a UN Observer’s Office, located in New York and a Program Office located in Taicang, China. PPD country offices are located within the Health Ministry of the respective member country.

Ques: What is PPD Mission and Vision?

Ans: The Mission and Vision of PPD are as follows:

Vision
To promote South-South cooperation towards the attainment of the global population and reproductive health agenda for sustainable development.

Mission
To achieve its vision through sustained advocacy, capacity building, networking, knowledge management/ sharing and transfer of technology in the field of RH, Population and Development within the framework of SSC.

 

Ques: What are the Priorities of the Organization?

Ans: The process for development of the New Strategic Plan (2020-2024) contains the following strategic priority areas:

  1. Population dynamics, demographic dividend and development
  2. Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights including family planning
  3. Maternal and Child Health
  4. Healthy and active ageing
  5. Social cohesion of migrants and their SRHR
  6. Health including reproductive health and poverty alleviation
  7. Gender-based violence

Ques: Who runs this Organization?

Ans: PPD operates globally with its member countries through its Board Members who are mainly Ministers of Population, Health and Development and Partner Country Coordinators (PCCs) who are also high level government officials. It has closer partnership with 17 premier institutions, known as Partner Institutions (PIs) in member countries which gives it a unique advantage in undertaking capacity development activities, in organizing policy advocacy, in identifying and documenting lesson learned among others. PPD has a Secretariat located in Dhaka Bangladesh, a Regional Office for Africa at Kampala, Uganda, a Programme Office at Taicang, China and a Permanent Observer’s Office for United Nations at New York, USA. It is headed by an Executive Director.

Ques: How the Governance of PPD is formed?

Ans:
Governing Body - The Governance structure of PPD is integrated in the Board, and the Executive Committee, which formulates the policies and monitors the activities. The Board is consisted mainly with the Ministers of Health, Population and Social Development from the Member States. The leadership of the Board consists of the Chair, the vice-Chair, the Secretary and the Treasurer elected by the Board of a three-year term and who constitute the Executive Committee of the Organization. The Board meets once a year to discuss governance, policy, and programmatic and financial issues while the Executive Committee meets twice a year before the Board meeting is held to provide guidance to and evaluate the achievements of the organization. The By-laws signed by each member state regulate the governance and functioning of the organization.

Implementing Bodies - The bodies responsible for the overall implementation and follow-up of PPD programs and projects are the Partner Country Coordinators (PCC) at the Partner Country level, Regional office at the regional level, and the PPD Secretariat.

Advisory Body - The body responsible for the provision of guidance, advice and technical assistance to PPD programs and projects is the International Program Advisory Committee (IPAC). Click here to see the list of Members.

Collaborative and Networking bodies - The bodies responsible to encourage collaboration with key institutions and organizations at both, national and regional level are the network of institutions (governmental and non-governmental) which collaborate in PPD programs and projects, the regional reproductive health networks, and the National Support Structure.

Ques: What are the current activities of the Organization?

Ans: Following are the current activities of the organization:
Capacity Development of Member Countries
The central philosophy of PPD in its efforts to encourage South-South Cooperation as a way of assisting developing countries to help achieve the ICPD Goals and the MDGs. PPD in its efforts to encourage South-South Cooperation as a way of assisting Member Countries (MCs) and the developing world in general to achieving the ICDP Goals and the MDGs, is systematically undertaking a number of analytical, programmatic, and consultative activities for the promotion of capacity building, namely:

  1. Documenting on capacities of PPD Partner Institutions (PIs) in MCs to mount and conduct capacity development programmes, as well as cataloguing of courses and other training initiatives at the PIs so as to develop appropriate programme that will enhance and support South-South Cooperation for the promotion of MDGs;
  2. Mapping the needs of member countries for capacity building at system, organizational and individual levels covering technical, managerial and programmatic skills and capabilities;
  3. Identifying training gaps in technical and managerial areas of member countries, as well as developing proposals to address those gaps;
  4. Developing a comprehensive capacity development action plan;
  5. Developing generic modules in priority capacity gap areas such as, population and poverty , population and reproductive health, population and gender, and institutional and historical perspectives on ICPD Goals and MDGs;
  6. Encouraging the PIs to integrate the contents of these generic modules into their ongoing activities.

Exchange of expertise (Fellowship Program)
The founding mandate of PPD was that countries in the South have among them unique practices, resources and knowledge, particularly in the fields of Family Planning, and Sexual and reproductive Health, which could be shared with other countries of the South to help them in formulation and implementation of policies and programs. Therefore, information and knowledge sharing for capacity building are among the core programmatic areas of PPD.

The PPD website successfully acts as the central point or the clearing house of information relating to member countries – their profiles, demographic data, best practices, list of centres of excellence, programs undertaken to further South-South Collaboration.

PPD has also developed a number of advocacy tools to promote PPD’s global agenda on Family Planning, and Sexual and Reproductive health. These include a myriad of publications including a Handbook for the Consultants, Report on Real Life Experience Sharing on Consulting for Reproductive Health, four Generic Modules for capacity Development and a booklet with overview of PPD PIs. In addition, PPD publishes a bi-monthly newsletter titled PPD Watch to highlight PPD and Member Country activities and achievements. All the above information resources could be found in the PPD website as well.

Besides, PPD has developed a fellowship program, which aims to:

  1. Strengthen human resource base in developing countries by voluntary offer of fellowships by leading training institutions from developing countries;
  2. Exchange experiences and expertise with other professionals.

The fellowship program is offered to professionals in the fields of population, family planning and sexual and reproductive health including both member and non-member countries from the South. The fellowship program has become a significant mechanism for mobilization financial and technical resources from and for the South. PPD so far offered about four hundred scholarship to member country professionals.

Reproductive Health and Commodity Supply and Security:
Success in RH/Family Planning programs and promotion of commodity supplies is key component to the achievement of the MDGs. Through its Reproductive Health Commodity Supply (RHCS) Program, PPD aims at exchanging information about research and development of RH commodities in various countries of the South, analyzing problems in RHCS and thereby promoting South-South Cooperation (SSC) in this particular domain. Due to pressing demand and challenges to countries of the South in RHCS and service, PPD mobilizes resources to enhance political commitment by the government from Member Countries to increase expenditures on RH commodities, on the one hand; and to reinforce capacity, commodity quality as well as information exchange on the other hand. PPD is also networking with the private sector, eventually the drug manufacturers and enable them share successful purchases that would enable improve the quality of products and adapt WHO pre-qualification standards in production of RH commodities.

PPD is also an Executive Member of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) and provides support to all the 99 Members of the RHSC globally for the enhancement of Reproductive Health Commodity Supply and Services.

Partnership:
Partnership building is a key component of PPD’s approach to encourage and strengthen South-South Cooperation. Over the past years, PPD has been active in developing a network of seventeen Partner Institutions from member countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Middle East. In order to achieve the goals of the ICPD and the MDGs, these PIs work closely with each other and with PPD towards capacity development, on the following specific areas including:

  1.  Adolescent Health
  2. Family Planning and HIV/AIDS
  3. Reproductive Health and Safe Motherhood;
  4. Maternal and Child Health;
  5. Policy Advocacy for Population Program development and Poverty alleviation;
  6. Information Technology;
  7. Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, among others.

Partnerships with NGOs, civil society organizations and other Stakeholders have also been enhanced through the Private and Public Partnership Initiative.

Advocacy:
Working to improve opportunities for RH, Population and Development programs for Member Countries, PPD, through its advocacy program, lends assistance to a large number of audiences and professional groups in the field of RH, to strengthen their role as promoters of leadership and actors of tangible social change in the South. In this regard, PPD has provided fertile ground for collaboration with Member Countries with involvement of Actors of tangible social change in the south. In this regard, PPD has provided fertile ground for collaboration with Member Countries with involvement of Actors engaged in Reproductive Health, Population, Policy Advocacy and Development programs among other issues. As component of this effort, PPD has prepared and disseminated a wide range of policy materials, organized advocacy campaign as well as policy dialogues, and provides assistance to member countries mainly to promoting South-South Cooperation in the areas of Reproductive Health, Population and Development.

Ques: How can one be a member of this Organization?

Ans: Any developing country is welcome to join PPD, including countries with economies in transition, as long as they demonstrate interest and substantive involvement in South-South activities. The criteria for membership are as follows:

  • The country may and may not have extensive experience and expertise in reproductive health, population and family planning to share with other developing countries;
  • It must be committed to the principles of the ICPD and its Program of Action, and to the mission of PPD;
  • It must agree to pay an accelerated annual membership fee. The minimum fee shall be US$ 20,000 annually.

Countries applying for membership will submit an application letter to the Chair of the PPD Board. A country profile and the country’s reproductive health strategic plan needed to be submitted together with the application letter.

Ques: Who funds this organization?

Ans: PPD is partly supported by the Member Countries themselves. Since PPD’s inception, the Rockefeller Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Ford Foundation, UNFPA, the World Bank, and more recently other foundations such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Packard Foundation, the Royal Dutch Government, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Venture Strategies, Population Communication and OXFAM Quebec has supported it. Bilateral and multilateral donors such as USAID, DFID, DSW and the European Commission have also provided generous financial assistance to PPD.

Ques: Which are the countries it operates?

Ans: While PPD activities are not limited to only its member countries, it generally operates through and with its member states as mentioned above.

Ques: What are its present programs?

Ans: Following are the present activities of the organization:

  1. Need based Capacity Development;
  2. Focused and targeted Advocacy and Policy Dialogue;
  3. Improved information sharing and communication;
  4. Networking and Coalition Building;
  5. Resource mobilization and
  6. Sharing of Technologies and expertise;

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