The synthesis report presented dignity, people, prosperity, the planet, justice and partnerships as an integrated set of “essential elements” aimed at providing conceptual guidance during discussions of the goals and the SG stressed that none could be considered in isolation from the others and that each was an integral part of the whole.

In the report’s conclusion, the Secretary-General issues a powerful charge to Member States, saying: “We are on the threshold of the most important year of development since the founding of the United Nations itself. We have an historic opportunity and duty to act, boldly, vigorously and expeditiously, to turn reality into a life of dignity for all, leaving no one behind.” He underlined that that his synthesis report “looks ahead, and discusses the contours of a universal and transformative agenda that places people and planet at the centre,” The synthesis report aims to support States’ discussions going forward, taking stock of the negotiations on the post-2015 agenda and reviewing lessons from pursuit of the MDGs.

He also welcomed the outcome produced by the Open Working Group, saying its 17 proposed sustainable development goals and 169 associated targets clearly expressed an agenda aiming at ending poverty, achieving shared prosperity, protecting the planet and leaving no one behind. Discussions of the Working Group had been inclusive and productive and the Group’s proposal should form the basis of the new goals, as agreed by the General Assembly.

The coming months would see agreement on the final parameters of the post-2015 agenda and he stressed the need for inclusion of a compelling and principled narrative, based on human rights and dignity. Financing and other means of implementation would also be essential and he called for strong, inclusive public mechanisms for reporting, monitoring progress, learning lessons, and ensuring shared responsibility. Implementation would also rely on bridging the technology gap, creating a new framework for shared accountability, and providing reliable data, which he called the “lifeblood of sound decision-making.”

Stressing his commitment to ensuring the best outcome from the post-2015 process, he underlined the need for member states to be guided by universal human rights and international norms, while remaining responsive to different needs and contexts in different countries.

(Report by: PPD Permanent Observer at the UN)

PPD Board meeting at New Delhi on 27 November 2014

The detail of newly elected Executive Committee of PPD for next three years

The composition of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee for next three years

The composition of the Program, Planning and Development for next three years

The meeting was Chaired by H.E. Mr. Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare of India. Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, Secretary, PPD Board and Director-General, National Council for Population Development (NCPD) Kenya was the Co-Chair of the meeting.

The name of the other members attended in the meeting as board member/ or their representatives are given in the list below:

• H.E. Mr. Jagat Prakash Nadda, Chair, PPD Board, and Honorable Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
• Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae , Secretary, PPD Board, and Director-General, National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), Government of Kenya
• Dr. Ridha Gataa, Treasurer, PPD Board and President Director-General, National Board for Family and Population , Ministry of Public Health, Government of Tunisia
• H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque, Honorable State Minister, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Board Member, PPD
• H.E. Mr. Wang Pei’ an, Honorable Vice Minister, National Health and Family Planning Commission of China (NHFPC)
  Government of the People’s Republic of China
• H.E. Mrs. Saira Afzal Tarar, Member, PPD Board and Honorable Minister of State , Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, Government of Pakistan
• H.E. Mr. Matia Kasaija, Member, PPD Board and Honourable Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Government of the Republic of Uganda
• H.E. Dr. Ahmed Ali Bourji, Member, PPD Board and
  Secretary General, Technical Secretariat, National Population Council, Council of Ministers
• Dr. Lucien TOKO, PCC, Benin
• Mr. Lamin Nyabally, The Gambia
• Mr. Wendy Hartanto, PCC, Indonesia
• Mr. Cheickna Seydi Ahmodi Diawara, Mali
• Dr. Taleb Abdellah, Morocco
• M r. Abraham Rojas Joyner, PCC, Mexico
• Mr. Sanjo Oladepo Faniran, PCC, Nigeria
• Mr. Jacques van Zuydam, Chief Director, Population and Development, Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa and PCC, PPD
• Dr. Kittipong Saejeng, PCC, Thailand
• Mr. Dinh Huy Duong, PCC, Vietnam
• Ms. Margaret Matongo, Zimbabwe
• Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director, PPD

Secretary’s report was presented by Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, Secretary, PPD Board and the Treasures’ report was presented by Dr. Ridha Gataa, Treasurer, PPD Board.

25th Executive Committee Meeting at New Delhi on 25 November 2014

The board member of the Host Country H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque, Honorable State Minister, People’s Republic of Bangladesh presented the host country report where the progress of construction of the permanent Secretariat building of PPD.

The synopsis of the discussions held in Program and Finance committee meeting were presented in the Excom for approval. Circumstantial discussion took place on ED’s report and the meeting also discussed in detail on PPD’s budget and work plan.

The meeting was Chaired by H.E. Mr Jagat Prakash Nadda, Chair, PPD Board, and Honorable Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Other members of the committee who were present in the meeting:

• H.E. Mr. Wang Pei’ an
  Honorable Vice Minister, National Health and Family Planning Commission of China (NHFPC)
  Government of the People’s Republic of China
• Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, Secretary, PPD Board, and
  Director-General, National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), Government of Kenya
• Dr. Ridha Gataa, Treasurer, PPD Board and
  President Director-General, National Board for Family and Population, Ministry of Public Health, Government of Tunisia
• H.E. Mr. Zahid Maleque, Honorable State Minister, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Board Member, PPD
• Mr. Jacques van Zuydam, Chief Director, Population and Development, Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa and PCC, PPD
• Mr. Abraham Rojas Joyner, Director General, National Population Council, Government of Mexico, PCC of PPD, Government of Mexico
• Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director, PPD>

Observers

• H.E. Honorable Matia Kasaija, Honorable Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Government of the Republic of Uganda and Member, PPD Board

In attendance

• Mr. Hu Hongtao, Commissioner, Department of International Cooperation, National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, Government of the People’s Republic of China and PCC, Partners in Population and Development (PPD)
• Mr. Md. Fazlul Haque, Joint Secretary (FW &Prog.), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and, PCC, Partners in Population and Development (PPD)
• Mr. Ben Haj Aissa Adnene, Director, Technical Cooperation Department, National Board of Family and Population, Government of Tunisia and PCC, Partners in Population and Development (PPD)
• Dr. Betty Kyadondo, PCC and Head of Family Health Department, Population Secretariat (POPSEC), Ministry of Finance, Planning & Economic Development, Uganda

The meeting was Chaired by H.E. Dr. Suleiman Olanrewaju Abubakar, Honourable Minister/Deputy Chairman, National Planning Commission, Board Member, Partners in Population and Development (PPD), Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Dr. Ridha Gataa, Treasurer, PPD Board and President, Director-General of National Board for Family and Population, Ministry of Public Health, Tunisia was present as the Co-chair.

Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee meeting at New Delhi in 23 November 2014

Participants of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee Meeting in Beijing, 2013

• Mr. Md. Fazlul Haque, PCC and Joint Secretary (FW & Prog.), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
• Mr. Hu Hongtao, PCC and Commissioner, Department of International Cooperation, National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, Government of the People’s Republic of China
• Dr. Wendy Hartanto, PCC and Deputy for Population Management, National Family Planning Coordination Board (BKKBN), Government of Indonesia
• Mr. Adnene Ben Haj Aissa, PCC and Director, Technical Cooperation, National Board of Family and Population;

The committee approved the resource mobilization plan of PPD and suggested to synchronize the plan with Strategic Plan which is under the process of finalization.Committee also appreciated PPD’s involvement for ICAAP12 that would be held in November 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Participants of the 6th Program, Planning and Developing Meeting in New Delhi 2014

A rigorous discussion took place on PPD’s work plan for 2015 and the committee finalized the plan by incorporating their recommendations. The recommended work plan would be presented in upcoming Executive Committee Meeting for approval. The committee reaffirmed their commitment to extend PPD’s effort to reduce Maternal Mortality across the member countries. The possibility of the exchange of commodity and technology for Family planning among the member countries was elaborately discussed in the meeting. The members of the committee also reviewed PPD’s Strategic Plan for 2015-2019 and placed their comments for incorporation.

Dr. Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, Secretary, PPD Board, Director General, National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), Kenya was attended as the co-chair of the meeting. Mr. C K Mishra, IAS, Additional Secretary, National Health Mission, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the Republic of India and PCC, Dr. Sahar El Sonbaty, Head of the Family Planning Central Management, Ministry of Health and Population, Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Partner Country Coordinator (PCC), Partners in Population and Development (PPD), Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mr. Dinh Huy Duong, PCC and Deputy Director of Personnel Department, General Office for Population-Family Planning (GOPFP), Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Mr. Rojas Joyner Abraham, PCC and Deputy Director for Non-governmental and International Organizations, National Population Council (CONAPO), Government of Mexico Government of Mexico was present in the meeting. Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director, PPD represented PPD secretariat in the meeting.

Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director of PPD with Honourable Chair of PPD H.E. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Government of India

Executive Director Dr. Joe Thomas, met with the Honourable Chair of PPD H.E. Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Honourable Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Government of India in New Delhi, India on 14 July 2014. The Executive Director congratulated H.E. Dr Hars h Vardhan on taking up the responsibility of the chairman and briefly presented a general overview on the organization, its background, fundamental objectives and mandates, governance and management.
Dr. Joe Thomas sought the advice and guidance from the Honourable Chair’s vision on PPD’s strategic directions towards moving the organization forward in the global arena and establishing PPD as a key player in international population and development issues, particularly of the member states and other developing countries.

The following are some of the key issues on which Honourable Chair’s advice was sought:

• Indian contribution for Promoting South-South Cooperation (SSC) in the broader context of health and population diplomacy.
• In addition, possible areas of Government of India’s technical support to member countries on Reproductive Health Commodity Security and access to Generic Medicines, PPD member countries possible joint action for strengthening regulatory systems, exchange of experience and ideas on TRIPS exception among PPD member countries.

During the meeting, Honourable chair of PPD agreed to host the 11th International-Inter Ministerial Conference on Population and Development and related annual PPD governance events in Delhi. The PPD annual meeting is consisted of an Inter-Ministerial Conference on Population and Development, Meeting of the Program Planning and Development Committee and Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committees, Partners Country Coordinator’s Meeting, Executive Committee Meeting and Annual Governing Board Meeting. Heads of PPD partner institutions and the commissioners of PPD Global Commission on ageing is also expected to meet during the PPD annual meeting.

The goal of the 2014, PPD Inter-Ministerial conference is to provide a platform to share evidence with senior-tier level policy makers from 26 developing countries, development partners and other stakeholders for decision making on key strategic and urgent investments for initiating a youth and second demographic dividends.

The inter-ministerial conference will provide evidence and share the inter-linkage between population dynamics and demographic divided, highlight the developing countries particular challenges in achieving a demographic dividend, and call attention to the urgent need for investments in health, education, gender equity, economic policies that are needed to open and take advantage of the window of opportunity of accelerated economic growth that may result from a decline in a country’s mortality and fertility and subsequent age structure of the population.

The theme for the 11th international inter-ministerial conference is “South-South Cooperation for investing for demographic dividend in the post ICPD and MDG Development frameworks”. This was prioritized in view of the global policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders discussions as well as optimistic views that demographic transition and dividend is within grasp for developing countries, provided adequate investment is made on health, education, family planning sexual and reproductive services and rights of young people.

From The left Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director of PPD; H.E. Dr. Wang Guoqiang, Honourable Vice Minister NHFPC and Ambassador Dr. Denis Broun, PPD permanent representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva

During the meeting H.E. Dr. Wang Guoqiang reiterated the commitment of the Government of China to PPD, and will continue to support PPD. China place great importance to PPD and an important member of PPD. PPD is the only inter-governmental organization of the global south which represents the interest of more than 60% of the global population. Despite on-going demographic shift, population dynamics is an important population phenomenon which requires coordinated effort to ensure desirable development impact.
Dr. Thomas thanked the Government of China for its continued support to PPD and updated H.E. Dr. Wang Guoqiang, on the progress of preparation for next PPD Executive Committee/ Board and PPD annual International Inter ministerial conference on Population and Development, and sought advice and guidance on the agenda for the Board & Executive committee meeting.

During the meeting Dr. Thomas explore the possibility of renewing the partnership between PPD and the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China on some of the significant initiatives such as; a) Donation of Reproductive Health and Family Planning Commodities to Developing Countries.; b) Support to Institutional Development for Reproductive Health Service Delivery Facilities in Developing Countries; c) Capacity Building of Developing Countries through Training on Population and Development.

Dr. Thomas acknowledged with gratitude and sincerely thanked the National Population and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China on the outcome of these Memorandum of Understanding between The National Population and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China and the Partners in Population and Development.

Several developing countries, particularly PPD member countries, immensely benefitted from the implementation of the above-mentioned MOUs which were greatly acknowledged and lauded at the PPD Board Meeting, Executive Committee Meeting and Inter-Ministerial Conferences and all concerned expressed the desire that this important collaboration are continued.

Dr. Ren Ming-Hui, Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, NHFPC of the People’s Republic of China, and Ambassador Dr. Denis Broun, PPD permanent representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva also attended the meeting.

The weeklong meeting has a crowded agenda. Some of the key themes, issues to be discussed in this assembly are;

• Framework of engagement with non-State actors,
• Draft global strategy and targets for tuberculosis prevention, care and control after 2015
• Global vaccine action plan
• Hepatitis, Improving the health of patients with viral hepatitis
• Prevention and control of no communicable diseases
• Maternal, infant and young child nutrition
• Draft WHO global disability action plan 2014–2021: Better health for all people with disability
• Comprehensive and coordinated efforts for the management of autism spectrum disorders
• Monitoring the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals
• New-born health: draft action plan, Every new-born: an action plan to end preventable deaths
• Addressing the global challenge of violence in particular against women and girls
• Multisectoral action for a life course approach to healthy ageing
• Public health impacts of exposure to mercury and mercury compounds: the role of WHO and ministries of public health in the implementation of the Minamata Convention
• Contributing to social and economic development: sustainable action across sectors to improve health and health equity
• Traditional medicine
• Access to essential medicines
• Strengthening of palliative care as a component of integrated treatment throughout the life course
• Regulatory system strengthening
• Health intervention and technology assessment in support of universal health coverage
• Follow-up of the Recife Political Declaration on Human Resources for Health: renewed commitments towards universal health coverage
• Implementation of the International Health Regulations
• Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits
• Smallpox eradication: destruction of variola virus stocks
• Draft global action plan on antimicrobial resistance
• Collaboration within the United Nations system and with other intergovernmental organizations

The complete agenda and the background documents of 67th WHA (WHA Journal) is available at the following url

http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha67.html

The meeting which took place on the side of the 47th Commission on Population and Development (CPD), brought together ministers of health, senior officials from Member States and key partners including WHO, UNFPA and IPPF. It was an opportunity to take forward the findings and deliberations of the recently concluded ICPD operational review and give Member States an opportunity to review progress, gaps, challenges and emerging issues in relation to the ICPD Programme of Action. PPD countries represent over half the world’s population, have the largest youth population, and are grappling with aging while at the same time dealing with development challenges among other things. The event also celebrated the twentieth anniversary of PPD.

The Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, H.E. Mr. A.K. Abdul Momen chaired the meeting and during his intervention reiterated the commitment of Bangladesh for continued support to PPD on its 20th anniversary. He emphasized the importance of investing in health and education for sustainable development, as opposed to areas such as defense which he said consumed disproportionate resources, without contributing to development. He recounted the contribution of PPD to move this ICPD agenda forward within its member countries and in other international fora underlining the spirit of South-South Cooperation.

Dr. Joe Thomas, Executive Director PPD, recalling the twentieth anniversary of the organization gave a brief overview of PPD’s history and its intimate association with ICPD POA. He flagged a few key issues for PPD countries to note, such as supporting sexual and reproductive health services and rights, paying attention to key groups such as adolescents, as well as the role of aging and migration in the development agenda of these countries. He pointed out that in developing countries, unlike in the developed world, aging of the population is occurring even before the countries are economically developed, which makes south-south learning critical. He was proud to underline that PPD is now moving from being a donor funded partnership to one that is Member State funded, and therefore sustainable.

H.E. Mr. Matia Kasaija, Minister of State for Finance, Government of Uganda also echoed the sentiments of Bangladesh by also reaffirming his country’s commitment to PPD. He however stressed that despite making considerable progress, several major challenges still remain. He commended PPD for its untiring efforts and contribution to support the member countries in implementing the ICPD agenda.

From the left Dr. Tewodros Melesse, Director General, IPPF, Ms. Kate Gilmore, Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA and Mr. Lov Verma, Secretary, MOHFW, Government of India at the breakfast meeting

Ms. Kate Gilmore, Board Member, PMNCH and Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA, spoke about the critical role of the Cairo Consensus in putting people and human rights in the center of the development agenda. She reminded the gathering that sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), is an integral part of human rights and inclusive development. She discussed SRHR in the context of adolescent health, stressing the importance of reaping the demographic dividend for PPD countries through investments in health including sexual reproductive health, education and employment opportunities for young, and the pivotal role that South-South collaboration plays in the present and future. She highlighted the economic, social and environmental returns of such investments and the fact that countries need to take a multi-sectoral approach to achieving sustainable development.

Mr. Lov Verma, Secretary, MOHFW, Government of India outlined the comprehensive nature of the RKSK (Rasthriya Kishore Swasthya Karyakram – or National Adolescent Health Program) which covers not only SRH, but malnutrition, substance abuse, mental health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and violence including gender-based violence. He noted that research shows about 33% of the disease burden and 60% of mortality in later years is rooted in adolescence. He talked of the importance of reaching adolescents in their own spaces and described the magnitude of the program in terms of health system needs (over 3.6 million peer educators and counsellors will be linked to 900,000 ASHA workers in the coming years). The program, he explained, is based on multi-sectoral collaboration and brings together many stakeholders for planning, implementation and monitoring.

The Bangladesh State Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mr Zahid Maleque, highlighted some of the achievements of Bangladesh in reducing poverty and achieving high economic growth in a pro-poor policy environment. His intervention focused on ways to empower women through skills development, provision of credit facilities and social safety nets, pointing out that Bangladesh has a net school enrollment of 99.5% (of which 53% are girls). He went on to explain that this was achieved through a mix of policies such as school feeding, provision of free text books, stipends for girls, among other things. He also acknowledged that several major challenges remain including malnutrition (particularly stunting), deliveries by unskilled providers, child marriage and vulnerability to natural disasters. He commended the contribution of PPD in advocating and supporting the ICPD follow up in its member countries. He reiterated his countries full confidence and commitment to support the mission and role of PPD.

Mr. He Zhaohua, Deputy Director General of the Department of Family Development, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China hailed PPD as an important platform in South South Collaboration, particularly for a country like China with the world’s largest population. He spoke of China’s long association with PPD and how the country has already committed over $2 million in commodities, training and technology to follow population trends.

Mr. Ricardo Paes de Barros, Undersecretary of National Committee on Population and Development of Brazil

The Undersecretary of Brazil’s National Committee on Population and Development, Mr. Ricardo Paes de Barros spoke of the strides Brazil is making in improving the health of its population by adding one year to the population’s life expectancy every two years. The country, however, is still struggling to reduce its MMR and teenage pregnancy which is a major concern, and he acknowledged the role of Commission on Population Development in helping countries learn from each other’s experiences. The Undersecretary also pointed out that even though South-South collaboration is not a replacement for ODA, it can make a significant difference on the ground.

Dr. Tewodros Melesse, Director General, IPPF, concluded the interventions by urging Member States to use the opportunity of the CPD to ensure that the rights of women and youth are protected as stated and agreed in the Human Rights Declaration.

A people centered, rights based approach to sustainable development that the ICPD set forth is as true today as it was 20 years ago. South-South collaboration is a powerful addition to ODA in terms of knowledge sharing, technology transfer and financial support in making this a reality

About PPD

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an intergovernmental alliance comprising of 26 developing countries. This alliance provides the mechanism to promote partnership and cooperation between the member countries, towards achieving the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Programme of Action (PoA) and also the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It holds a status of Permanent Observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.
The current member countries of the Alliance are, Bangladesh, Benin, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The PPD member countries cover more than 57% of the global population. www.partners-popdev.org

PPD MEDIA CONTACT

Masuma Billah, Advocacy and Communication Officer
+88 01716 011683
masuma@ppdsec.org
Skype: masuma.billah

About 75 million unintended pregnancies are occurring every year in the Globe; while Bangladesh is contributing approximately 1 million per year. 28% of total pregnancy is unplanned and 12.7% are unwanted in Bagladesh.

National Stakeholders Meeting for Dissemination of the Country Profile Report on Understanding Unintended Pregnancies in Bangladesh

The meeting disseminated the Country Profile Report on Understanding Unintended Pregnancies in Bangladesh; His Excellency Mr. Zahid Maleque, Hon’ble State Minister of MOHFW showed his deep concern on per capita health expenditure of the people of Bangladesh and raised the issue of limited budgetary allocation for health in the national budget. He also requested the developing partners to work for raising awareness among the people for safe MRM practices and unsafe abortion.

Ms. Argentina Piccin, Country Representative of UNFPA Bangladesh, raised the issue of human resource allocation and supervision in health sector. She said that the lack of trained human resources is one of the major challenges in the health sector of Bangladesh.

Dr. Joe Thomas, ED of PPD explained PPD’s expectation; he added that PPD wants to facilitate Policy dialogue in the issue of unintended pregnancies to bring the researcher and policy maker in common consensus so that they could come up with policy recommendations, specially at the time of Post ICPD and beyond MDG perspective when most of the countries are considering to update the population policy.

Dr. Ubaidur Rob, Country Representative, Population Council Bangladesh drew the attention of the audience and the policymakers on the facts, figures and trend of the unintended pregnancy situation of the country.

In her presentation, Dr. Fauzia Akhter Huda of ICDDR,B presented the research result and recommendations of the Country Profile Report on Understanding Unintended Pregnancy in Bangladesh. On behalf of the consortium of the project named “Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy (STEP-UP)”, ICDDR,B developed a country profile report and the report which was validated by the national taskforce members through a 2 days training workshop.

The meeting was wrapped up by Mr. M. M. Neazuddin, Secretary, MOHFW; he appreciated the recommendation came out through the intensive research evidence. He thanked PPD and other consortium members to take such timely initiative to address the burning issue of unintended pregnancy. Mr. Secretary suggested the Director of MCH to formulate a working group with the SETP-UP consortium members and other relevant stakeholder to find out the possibilities how these recommendations could be translated into policy and recommend it to the Government. He also assured that Government will take immediate initiatives to find out the programmatic potentiality of the SETP-UP evidence.

About STEP-UP Project

The STEP-UP (Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy) generates policy –relevant research to promote the evidence based approach for improving access to FP and safe abortion. The project is funded by UKaid and is implanting in five countries: Bangladesh, Kenya, Ghana, India and Senegal. The consortium partners of the STEP-UP are Population Council ( Coordinating Partner), African Population and Health Research Center, ICDDR,B, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Marie Stopes International and PPD.

About PPD

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an intergovernmental alliance comprising of 26 developing countries. This alliance provides the mechanism to promote partnership and cooperation between the member countries, towards achieving the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), Programme of Action (PoA) and also the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It holds a status of Permanent Observer status at the United Nations General Assembly.
The current member countries of the Alliance are, Bangladesh, Benin, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The PPD member countries cover more than 57% of the global population. www.partners-popdev.org

PPD MEDIA CONTACT

Masuma Billah, Advocacy and Communication Officer
+88 01716 011683
masuma@ppdsec.org
Skype: masuma.billah