As envisaged in the MOU, PPD and League of Arab States virtually organized an international webinar titled Webinar on Islam and RH: Sharing Experiences and Best Practices on Islam and Reproductive Health on 27 July 2021. As established worldwide, the Arab States are predominantly Muslim Countries and the socio-economic sphere of lives is mainly regulated by the principles, tenets, culture and values of Islam. The oldest and most distinguished Al-Azhar University of Egypt, widely regarded as the undisputed authority in Islamic Affairs including Islamic Jurisprudence, provided a legal framework on the FP and RH in Islam. Most of the Arab States have strong population programs implemented within the framework of Islam, which is a matter of great interest worldwide. The League of Arab States wished to further strengthen the population programs of its Member States by sharing the successful experiences of PPD Member States under the framework of the MOU.  This has led to the decision for organizing series of Webinars, the first one of which was held on 27 July 2021. The Webinar drew participation from all over the world including the member countries of League of Arab States and PPD.

The core objectives of the Webinar were discussing ways of transferring knowledge and exchanging experiences in population and development between and among the member countries of both the organizations; analysing reproductive health issues from an Islamic perspective and reviewing Islam’s position on them, and strengthening South-South Cooperation among the member states of the League of Arab States through its sister concern Arab Council for Population and Development and the Member States of Partners in Population and Development (PPD). Initially, it was agreed to examine the successful experience of Indonesia and Tunisia, two most successful PPD Member Countries in implementing FP and RH, for replication in the Member States of the League of Arab States.

Officially inaugurated by H.E. Mrs. Haifa Abu Ghazala, Under Secretary General and Head of Social Affairs Department of the League of Arab States, the Inaugural Session was addressed by Mr. Adnene Ben Haj Aissa, Executive Director, Partners in Population and Development (PPD), Dr. Louay Shabana, Regional Director, UNFPA Arab States Regional office (ASRO), Secretary of PPD Board and Chair of the Arab Council on Population and Development Prof. Habib Ghedira, President Director General of the National Board of Family and Population (ONFP).

Keynote speech on the Webinar Theme, Islam and Reproductive Health, was delivered by Dr. Jamal Abu Sourour, Director of International Islamic Center for Research in Population, University Al Azhar, EGYPT. Indonesian Experience on Islam and RH/FP was presented by Prof. Mohamed Rizal Damanik, Deputy for Training, Research and Development, National Population and Family Planning Board (NPFPB-BKKBN), Indonesia. Tunisian experience on Islam and Reproductive Health by Prof. Slim Ben Sheikh, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Tunisia.

This session was followed by presentation of the country situations of Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Mauritania, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco and Libya.

A comprehensive report reflecting the salient findings of the Webinar is under preparation and will be made available at the PPD Website in due course.

The Executive Committee reviewed and discussed the governance, operational and programmatic activities and the strategic directions of the organization and approved the dates for the organization virtually of the 36^th Executive Committee Meeting on 16^th November 2021 and the Board Meeting on 18^th  November 2021. In addition, the Executive Committee approved the theme of the 18^th International Inter Ministerial Conference on South-South Cooperation in Population and Development on: “Sustained SSC programs for the achievement of ICPD and SDGs” to be held on three sessions: 15, 22 and 29 November 2021.

 Handover Ceremony of Misoprostol tablets and Postpartum Kits donated by Chinese Government to Bangladesh Government

31^st May 2021

Partners in Population and Development organized in collaboration with the Directorate General of Family Planning, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh and the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka a handover Ceremony of Misoprostol Tablets and Postpartum Kits under the project “Providing Safe, Comprehensive and Appropriate Intervention to Prevent Postpartum Hemorrhage for Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Bangladesh”, funded by the Chinese South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund.

Director General of DGFP, Ms. Shahan Ara Banu attended as Chief Guest, thanked the Government of China for the support provided to Bangladesh which will contribute to reduce maternal mortality and ensured that DGFP will take serious initiative to implement the project successfully despite some challenges related to lack of human resources in the areas of the project sites namely Manikang and Gazipur districts. She highlighted the efforts of the government to encourage women to give birth at facilities instead of home which can put their lives at risk.

Mr. Nitish Chandra Sarkar, Additional Secretary of MoHFW and Partner Country Coordinator of Bangladesh for PPD, attended as Special Guest and expressed his appreciations for the works and support of DGFP team members. He emphasized the implementing agency’s role in effective coordination and communication. He thanked the Government of China, particularly former PPD Chair, Dr. Li Bin and Ms. Zhang Yang, Partner Country Coordinator of China for PPD whose continued support contributed in selecting PPD to get this first funded project by SSCAF for Bangladesh.

Mr. Liu Zhenhua, Economic and Commerce Counsellor in the Embassy of China in Bangladesh attended the ceremony and highlighted the long friendship and sustained bilateral cooperation between the Government of China and Bangladesh. He expressed his wishes of success to the Trilateral Cooperation China-PPD-Bangladesh.

Mr. Adnene Ben Haj Aissa, Executive Director of PPD, thanked the DGFP and the Embassy of China for attending the ceremony and reminded the commitment made by the Government of Bangladesh at Nairobi Summit on ICPD@25 in 2019, to reduce maternal mortality to 70/100,000 live births by 2030. He said that PPD is supporting, through this project, the efforts of the DGFP to achieve this objective and stands ready to provide all necessary supports required for successful implementation. Before concluding, Mr Adnene requested Dr. Nazrul Islam, Program Director, PPD Secretariat, to handover the medicines and kits’ boxes to Dr. Mohamed Sharif, Director of MCH at DGFP and Chair of the handover ceremony, who concluded by thanking Government of China for the donations and PPD for ensuring their delivery to the DGFP. He reaffirmed that necessary initiatives will be taken to successfully implement the project which can serve as example to other PPD member countries.

The two-week long online Course on Better Maternal and Child Healthcare for Developing Countries was inaugurated on 18 May 2021 at the CTC Campus in Taicang, China. Presided by CTC Director Ms. Zhu Ying, the Inaugural Ceremony was addressed among others by the senior official from National Health Commission (NHC), Deputy Mayor of Taicang Municipal Government and a senior official from the Ministry of Health of Mozambique representing the participants. The duration of the Online Capacity Building Training Course is from 18 to 31 May 2021.

This is the first time that CTC is conducting its SSC Capacity Building Training Program online for the developing countries ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year.  A total number of 26 government officials and medical professionals working in the field of maternal and child health from 5 developing countries namely Kenya, Mongolia, Mozambique, Sudan and Uruguay participating in the SSC Capacity Building Training Program.

Focusing on the theme of better maternal and child health during COVID-19, the Training Course will deliberate on the subjects such as MCH Care provision under COVID-19, clinical health care service for the newborns, health education and publicity on MCH, management of MCH service institutions, and SSC for maternal and child health in Post COVID-19 Era. Senior scholars and experts from Chinese academic institutions, hospitals and government departments will make enlightening discourses, while the participants will also share their own experiences on MCH in COVID-19 in the Online Training Course.

More SSC training workshops on population and development and reproductive health will be conducted by CTC during the rest of 2021.

The objective for availing of the technical assistance from BKKBN for organizing the Webinar was mainly two-fold, ensuring the element of South-South Cooperation by involving one of the member countries and highlighting the preponderant technical capabilities of one of the member country institutions in successfully organizing the digital event. This has demonstrated how expeditiously one of the Southern developing countries has adapted the most advanced digital conference technology, which is not different in case of other Southern developing countries also.

Following the Opening Session, the internationally acclaimed public health specialists and experts, who documented the respective Best Practices as consultants under the guidance of PPD and respective Partner Country Coordinators (PCCs), briefly presented the most salient features of the Best Practices. This session was moderated by the PCC of Indonesia, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rizal Damanik, Deputy for Research and Training of BKKBN, Indonesia. The presentation of the Best Practices triggered flurries of questions by the Partner Country Coordinators (PCC) during the Intervention/Discussion Session including the audiences. Few of the selected questions and queries were responded and clarified immediately in view of the time constraints, while the remaining have been compiled for responses in writing afterwards.

It is worth mentioning here that, one of the foremost mandates of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is identifying, documenting and facilitating replication of Best Practices covering broad spectrum of Reproductive Health, Population and Development, Maternal Health including Empowerment of Women and Youths. As stated earlier, the 11 Best Practices were documented in the 11 Member Countries of PPD covering different geographical regions have been enormously successful in accomplishing their objectives and attaining desired outcomes and impacts during and after their implementation. They have also achieved dramatic successes in their repeated replications in different areas and settings, demonstrating themselves as the universal Best Practices for the Southern Developing Countries in the respective field of activities, where their crucial necessity and demand essentially exist. The fundamental purpose of the Webinar was sharing the Best Practices with all the member countries including wider international audience in order to generate interest and enthusiasm for their replications, where they are needed most. The purpose of the Webinar was accomplished to the greatest extent as they were invariably acknowledged as wonderful treasurer of knowledge management through exchange of experiences including replication of the Best Practices whilst the Webinar was in progress.

PPD Executive Director Mr. Adnene Ben Haj Aissa in his Introductory Remarks expressed his appreciation to the Hon. PPD Chair Ms. Lindiwe Zulu, the South African Minister of Social Development for attending the Webinar as the Opening Speaker, PPD Treasurer H.E. Dr. Hasto Wardoyo for the technical support and also for his attendance. He also expressed his gratitude to Mr. Arthur Erken and other UNFPA colleagues for supporting the documentation of the Best Practices and also attending and speaking at the event. He made special appreciation to Ms. Chouaa Dassouky, Director of Population Policies, League of Arab States for attending and consenting to deliver closing remarks. PPD and the League of Arab States recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on partnership and collaboration in areas of common interest. This is for the first time a high-level dignitary of the League of Arab States attended and made an intervention in one of the important PPD Program. The Executive Director extended his gratitude to the Board Members and Partner Country Coordinators including consultants for supporting documentation of the Best Practices.

UNFPA HQ Director of Policy and Strategy Division Mr. Arthur Erken in his statement mentioned that he had been involved with PPD since its inception in Cairo. He attached paramount importance and assured strengthening long-term UNFPA-PPD partnership for leveraging South-South and Triangular Cooperation. He added that UNFPA is also committed to establishment and operationalization of the Center of Excellence for promoting SSTC. He added that dynamic and timely knowledge management is important for sharing and utilization of the successful experiences and commended PPD for carrying out this important exercise. He observed that SSTC is a growing movement across the world as a highly relevant framework of the development cooperation and for building peach and harmony among the nations.

Prof. Muhammad Rizal Damanik, on behalf of PPD Treasurer and the Chairperson of BKKBN-Indonesia H.E. Dr. Hasto Wardoyo, delivered the statement. At the very outset he expressed happiness to co-host this important Webinar on Sharing Best Practices jointly with PPD demonstrating the good will of increased international partnership and solidarity being promoted by PPD and South-South Cooperation. He said that Indonesia is one of the initial signatories of the 1994 ICPD Program of Action and committed to the SDG and Nairobi outcomes including the Three Zeros. He informed that Indonesia establishment a conducive financial framework at the national and provincial level with the ultimate objective of ensuring universal access to the Reproductive Health and Services.

PPD Governing Board Chair H.E. Mrs. Lindiwe Zulu MP, Hon. Minister of Social Development of the Government of South Africa observed that the documentation and replication of the Best Practices in reproductive health, maternal health, empowerment of women and girls is very important to change the lives of the people, which requires political will and commitment for their continued implementation. She said that BAPA+40 emphasized the role and importance of SSTC for implementation of ICPD and SDGs. SSTC was acknowledged as an alternative financial tool for implementation of Nairobi Commitments including the Three Zeros. She said that SSC is an effective platform for intercountry cooperation for supporting horizontal partnership and diversifying knowledge and expertise for sustainable development, and Southern countries need to work together and find out collective solutions. She urged UNFPA to strengthen win-win partnership with PPD for achieving the common objectives under SSTC framework. She said that PPD as a robust Inter-Governmental Organization will garner strong and important political commitment and support to address the post-COVID crises under the framework of South-South Cooperation. She also stressed on the importance and inclusion of poverty eradication under the SSTC program framework. She appreciated 40 scholarships provided by Egypt, India and South Africa will help capacity building to achieve national commitments. She also appreciated PPD for institutionalization of the SSC at the country level through strengthening of the National Task Forces, which will facilitate achievement of the three transformative results, which were agreed in Nairobi. She said that young people constitute 50% of the developing world population and their involvement in program design and implementation can ensure balanced and sustainable development. She urged for sufficient budgetary allocation by national and international organizations for promoting SSTC.

Ms. Chouaa Dassouky, Director of Population Policies, League of Arab States in her Closing Remarks thanked the organizers for inviting her to speak in this important platform. She has been representing the Technical Secretariat of the League of Arab Stakes for Population and Development. She said that the Arab Council of Population and Development was established under the framework of ECOSOC and the patronage of Government of Jordan in 2019 in Amman, Jordan and with support from UNFPA ASRO. The fundamental objective of creating the council was promoting integration of population and development at governmental and non-governmental level. She mentioned signing of the bilateral MOU between the League of Arab States and PPD with the objective of enhanced the cooperation in population and development issues. She enumerated some of the fundamental objectives of the Council, such as, putting an end to the Gender Based Violence and harmful practices. She said that COVID-19 Pandemic reversed many of the past achievements and the organization devised plans to face the consequences and repercussions and strengthening universal access to RH including in the humanitarian settings. Ensuring access to SRSH Services to the women and girls including adequate provision for advanced FP Method is a prime objective of the Council.

She said that signing of MOU opened new horizons of cooperation to benefit from experiences of PPD member states to enrich their own experience. ICPD, SDG and Nairobi Commitments will govern the issues of discussion and exchanges. The Strategic Plan the Arab Council of Population and Development has developed will be implemented in collaboration with UNFPA ASRO. Further workshops on sharing of the Best Practices will ensue cooperation between LAS and PPD member states to benefit from their success. The Arab Council on Population and Development is working on strategies for harnessing demographic dividend in the countries of the region. The MOU has created chances to share the Best Practices of PPD for promoting interregional cooperation. She concluded her Closing Remarks by thanking PPD for inviting her in this wonderful event.

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