Vietnam constituted National Task Force to strengthen South-South Cooperation:
A South– South Cooperation workshop was held at the International Conference Center, Hanoi, Viet Nam on May 19, 2011. The workshop was jointly organized by PPD and General Office for Population-Family Planning (GOPFP), Ministry of Health, and Government of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. His Excellency Dr. Nguyen Ba Thuy, Vice Minister, Ministry of Health was the chief guest at the workshop. Mr. Bruce Campbell, Country Representative, UNFPA represented all the UN agencies at the workshop. Over 60 participants from diversified discipline e.g. high government officials from different departments of ministry of health, representatives from other ministries, UN agencies, NGOs, INGOs, CSOs and mass media attended the workshop.
During his inaugural speech, the Hon. Vice Minister Dr. Thuy gave an overview on the current status of the MDGs in Viet Nam and narrated his Government’s priorities for further achievements. He thanked PPD for its facilitating roles for promoting South-South Cooperation helping its member countries in achieving the ICPD goals and MDGs. He expressed his Government’s commitment for the South-South Cooperation, constituting and to support functioning of the National Task Force in Viet Nam and PPD.
In his speech, Mr. Harry S. Jooseery, the Executive Director of PPD highlighted the achievements that Viet Nam made on MDGs and congratulated the Government for its stewardship role. He described the importance of South-South Cooperation in achieving the ICPD goals and MDGs in developing countries. He mentioned climate change as a potential risk for VietNam in delaying or hindering further achievement. He informed the participants that PPD is organizing an international conference on Population Dynamics, Climate Change and Sustainable Development in Pretoria, South Africa in November, 2011. Mr. Jooseery thanked the Government of Viet Nam, Board Member and PCC for agreeing to constitute and support the National Task Force.
Mr. Bruce Campbell, Representative, UNFPA in his speech thanked PPD and the Government of Viet Nam for organizing the South-South Workshop. He mentioned that the ICPD Program of Action refers to South-South Cooperation as an important development instrument and resource mobilization objective. He also mentioned the collaboration of the UNFPA and Government of Viet Nam to achieve the MDGs and tackle the emerging issues e.g. Sex Ratio at Birth in Viet Nam. He reiterated his commitment to promote South South and to assist PPD in its endeavors in Viet Nam.
Mr. Duong Quoc Trong presenting demographic and FP indicators of different provinces of Vietnam
Mr. Duong Quoc Trong, PPD Board member and Director General of the General Office for Population and Family planning made a presentation on “Population Changes and Issues to be addressed in the period 2011-2020”. He presented the status of different demographic and family planning indicators of different provinces of Viet Nam and described the different projections for coming decades.
During the workshop, a number of mass media representatives including TV, radios, newspapers etc. interviewed the Hon. Vice Minister, the Executive Director, PPD, UNFPA representatives and Board Member, PPD on the importance of SSC, the potential roles that Viet Nam can play to foster SSC and how Viet Nam could benefit through this modality.
18th Executive Committee meeting:
The 18th Executive Committee Meeting of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) was held on 23-24 June in Dalian City, China. The meeting was organized by PPD in collaboration with the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Government of the People’s Republic of China.
From the left H.E. Prof. Dr. AFM Ruhal Haque, Honorable Board Member of Bangladesh, H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Honorable Chair of PPD and H.E. Dr. Li Bin, Honorable Vice Chair of PPD
The following members attended the meeting:
- H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Honorable Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India and Chair of PPD
- H.E. Dr. Li Bin, Minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Vice Chair of PPD
- H.E. Prof. Dr. AFM Ruhal Haque, Host Country Board Member and Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
- Dr. Boniface Omuga K’Oyugi MBS, Secretary and CEO of National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD), Government of Kenya
- Dr. Faouzia Béjaoui Ouezini, Treasurer, PPD Board and President Director General , National Office of Family and Population (ONFP)
PPD is in the process of reviewing its existing policies and proposed strategies. The members of the Executive Committee reviewed the revised policy documents and proposed framework for the new Strategic Business Plan for the coming 3 years.
PPD Membership participation at the United Nations’ High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in New York
The UN General Assembly concluded its three-day High-level Meeting on AIDS, held during 8-10 June 2010 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Meeting was aimed to shape the future global response. Many members of the PPD Board were in attendance, including H E Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India and the Chair of the PPD Board.
The Opening session of the Meeting was addressed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, the President of the 65th Session of the General Assembly Joseph Deiss of Switzerland and Dr. Michel Sidibe, the Executive Director of UNAIDS.
Honorable Board Member of Bangladesh, H.E. Prof. Dr. AFM Ruhal Haque delivering speech in the UN High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS
The High-level Meeting was very well attended by the PPD member countries. The level of participation by the member countries was indeed very high, with the Presidents of Mali and Nigeria; Vice Presidents and Deputy Prime Ministers of Ghana, South Africa and Viet Nam; Ministers from Bangladesh, Benin, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Zimbabwe; and Senior Officials from Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Pakistan, Thailand and Uganda. At the end of the three-day Meeting, the General Assembly adopted a comprehensive resolution to address the pressing challenges of the pandemic. All the representatives of the PPD member countries made important statements to the General Assembly on their national experiences and called for important actions by the international community. For details follow us: http://www.partners-popdev.org/
STEP UP (Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy) Project
PPD in consortium with 5 other organizations (Population Council, Africa Population and Health Research Centre, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research- Bangladesh, Centre for Population Studies- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Marie Stopes International) is implementing a project on Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy (STEP UP) which is being spearheaded by Population Council and with assistance from DFID. The goals of the project are to produce high quality evidence that improves the health of the poorest individuals, particularly women, in developing countries; and to support national and global efforts to accelerate progress towards poverty reduction and achievement of MDGs 4 and 5. The project is being implemented in Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, India and Senegal.
On 19th May, 2011 STEP UP consortium convened a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya to launch the project. The major themes discussed during the meeting were around ‘strengthening and expanding the reach of existing RH programmes so that they function more effectively and efficiently, addressing women’s and men’s Reproductive Health Rights, and fostering increased political commitment to reproductive, maternal and child health’; and ‘developing and evaluating innovative service delivery and financing models to increase the range of options available to policy makers and programmes managers, and to addressing the needs of diverse sub-population’.
On May 23rd – 25th 2011 the Senior Management Team (SMT) of the Consortium met in London to review the inception phase of the project and also to develop a work plan for the coming 5 years. PPD was represented at this SMT meeting in London by Mr. Harry S. Jooseery, Executive Director and Dr. Jotham Musinguzi, Africa Regional Director.
