
Proposed by Chair of PPD, Bangladesh Health Minister Prof. Ruhal Haque elected to GAVI Governing Body Member
TH.E. Prof. A. F. M. Ruhal Haque, MP, Member, PPD Board and Honorable Minister, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has been elected as a member of the Governing body of GAVI, an affiliation of World Health Organization (WHO) under the UN. He has been elected to the prestigious UN post for three year term. Dr. Haque will represent 11 developing countries of Asia in GAVI Governing Board meetings in next three years.
The election was held at the end of the 29th WHO health Ministers’ conference in Jaipur, India. The Bangladesh Health Minister was unanimously accepted to the prestigious UN post after H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad Chair, PPD Board and Honorable Minister, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India proposed his name on behalf of Health Ministers of the 11 Asian countries.
H.E. Prof. A. F. M. Ruhal Haque, MP, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh with Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO and H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India
The GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) is a public-private global health partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries. The Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialized and developing countries, research and technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private philanthropists. GAVI support consists of providing life-saving vaccines and strengthening health systems. Since 2000, over 200 million children have been vaccinated and 3.4 million premature deaths averted thanks to GAVI-funded programmes. Next governing meeting of GAVI will be held in November 2011 at Dhaka Bangladesh. Honorable Minister of Bangladesh received the GAVI Alliance Award 2009 for Bangladesh’s outstanding performance in improving child health immunization.
Honorable Ghulam Nabi Azad, PPD Chair Pleads for more attention to NCD
In the UNGA High-level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) that was held in New York, USA on 19th September 2011, H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India and Chair of PPD, said his country faced the “triple burden” of communicable diseases, new and re-emerging infections and the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases. Due to alarm over their impact, India held a national summit on non-communicable diseases after the April 2011 global health minister’s conference on the issue. Besides the Delhi Call for Action, which resulted from that national meeting, ten key messages had also been issued from the recent WHO South East Asia Regional meeting in Jaipur, India.
H.E. Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Honorable Chair of PPD at the UNGA High-level Meeting
He pointed out that India began in 2011 a US $275 million pilot project covering 150 million people in 100 of its least accessible districts. It included establishment of clinics that made life-saving drugs available, provided cancer diagnostic and chemotherapy services, and screened for diabetes and hypertension. “Our target is to screen 150 million people by March 2012 under this pilot project. This would be the largest such exercise attempted anywhere in the world. I am happy to state this programme will be rolled out in the entire country in April 2012,” he said. India’s technological innovations, such as re-combining human insulin and poly-pill for prevention of cardiovascular and stroke events, had led to affordable health care, not only for India’s people, but for many other countries around the world. But, trade barriers which restricted access to affordable and newly developed medicines needed to be addressed. (Courtesy, UN DPI Summaries)
PPD’S New Strategic Business Plan (2012-2014)
H.E. Prof. Dr. A F M Ruhal Haque, Honorable Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Board Member of Partners in Population and Development (PPD) inaugurated a four day long consultative meeting for the development of PPD’s new Strategic Business Plan (2012-14) on 13 September 2011 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. In his inaugural address he stated that the Government of Bangladesh is proud to be a cherished partner of PPD from its inception in 1994 and pledge to contribute its support to PPD and improving its structure.
Dr. Boniface O. K’Oyugi, MBS, Secretary, PPD Board and Director General National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development, Kenya made statements in the opening session of the workshop. In his remarks he described the Board views about strategic development and policy development process.
The Executive Director of PPD Dr. Harry Jooseery, Mr. Md. Humayun Kabir, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Bangladesh and Mr. Arthur Erken, Country Representative, UNFPA Bangladesh and Partner Country Coordinators from Mali, Bangladesh, Mexico and Tunisia also attended in this event and valuable contributions.
Bangladesh and Senegal received UN South- South Award 2011
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade were awarded the UN South-South Award 2011 for their outstanding contributions to improving and replicating the implementation of the health-related Millennium Development Goals and beyond the national level. Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Hammadou Touré handed over the award to both the heads of the governments at a colorful ceremony in New York on 19 September 2011.
This year’s theme of the award was ‘Digital Health 4 Digital Development’. H. E. Sheikh Hasina was selected for the award for her innovative idea to use the information and communication technology for progress of the health of women and children. Receiving the award Sheikh Hasina said it was a great honor for her and people of Bangladesh as well, for recognition of the South peers to the hard work of the people of her country and government. She said her government is striving to make Bangladesh a middle-income digital country within a decade through exploiting the modern inventions in the areas of information and technology. She referred to the conferment of the MDG award on her last year for success in reducing maternal and child mortality rate in the country and said mobile facilities are being used to prescribe medicine for malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases in the rural areas. The award will be a great inspiration for her and the people of Bangladesh to achieve the cherished goal in the areas for developmentfor women and children, she said.
PPD applauds this laudable achievement of Bangladesh and Senegal, and hopes this will enhance further the future of South-South cooperation. We present our warm felicitations to H.E. Sheikh Hasina Prime Minister of Bangladesh and H.E Abdoulaye Wade President of Senegal for this prestigious distinction.
Regional Meeting of Southern and Eastern Africa Alliance of Parliamentary Committees on Health (SEAPACOH)
The Regional Meeting of the Southern and Eastern African Parliamentary Alliance of Committees of Health, held 27-29 September 2011 at Imperial Royale Hotel, in Kampala, Uganda, gathered members of Parliamentary Committees responsible for health from 18 countries and regional bodies in Eastern, Southern, and West Africa, with civil society and regional partners to promote information exchange, facilitate policy dialogue and identify key areas of follow up action to advance health equity and sexual and reproductive health in the region.
The meeting was held as a follow up to review progress on actions proposed at the September 2008, 2009, and 2010 Regional Meetings of the Southern and Eastern African Parliamentary Alliance of Committees of Health. The fourth high level Regional Meeting of Parliamentary Committees on Health in Eastern and Southern Africa was on the theme of “Repositioning Family Planning and Reproductive Health in Africa: Lessons Learnt, Challenges and Opportunities.” The meeting was hosted by Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office (PPD ARO) in partnership with the Southern and Eastern African Parliamentary Alliance of Committees of Health (SEAPACOH). PPD Executive Director Dr. Harry S. Jooseery attended the event and made an opening remark together with Ms. Rebecca Kadaga Hounourable speaker of Ugandan Parliament.
Participants were drawn from Parliaments of Botswana, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the East African Legislative Assembly. Parliamentarians committed themselves to the realization of the MDGs, the Maputo Plan of Action and the Accra Agenda for Aid Effectiveness by identifying and undertaking concrete actions under the following three major themes:
- Generate and Reinforce Political Will Within and Outside Parliament
- Demonstrate Financial Commitment
- Strengthen the Health System
International Seminar for South-South Cooperation on NGO Capacity Building in Population and Reproductive Health
The International Seminar for South-South Cooperation on NGO Capacity Building in Population and Reproductive Health was organized by PPD China through 9th-10th Oct, 2011. Over 30 representatives from NGOs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, international organizations including PPD, ICOMP and, IPPF, and government officials and experts attended. PPD Executive Director Dr. Harry S. Jooseery attended and addressed participants at the international seminar.
This Seminar covered 7 topics including progress, challenges and future strategies for achieving ICPD goals and MDGs, Partnership between Governments and NGOs, good practice from Latin Americas and Asian countries, New technical skills of contraceptives, SSC in Population and Development, and resource mobilization. It served as a platform for promoting the South-South Cooperation networking and capacity building of NGOs in population and reproductive health.
PPD vice Chair, Hounourable Li Bin opens the Asian International Forum on Population and Family Development
The opening ceremony of CAEXPO population and family development forum, the first forum of the 8th CAEXPO, was held on October 11, 2011 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Li Bin, H.E. Dr. LI Bin, Vice-Chair, PPD Board and Honorable Minister National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC), Government of the People’s Republic of China and Harry Jooseery, Executive Director of Population and Development were present at the meeting and addressed participants at the opening ceremony. Indonesia Board Member Dr. Sugiri Sharif was also present and addressed participants at the opening ceremony.
Li Bin pointed out in her opening speech that the population played an important basic and strategic role in economic progress. The successful practice of solving the population problem comprehensively in China had promoted the all-round development of people and sustainable development of the country effectively.
Over 130 people attended this forum, including officials from Chinese and ASEAN-country governments, relevant international organizations, and non-governmental organizations, representatives of some foreign embassies, experts home and abroad, as well as practical workers. Centering on the population and family development, participants exchanged ideas and discussed on enhancing regional cooperation for promoting sustainable population and family development and family well-being in this globalized and urbanized environment.
News Release :
2011 Annual PCC meeting held in Pretoria, South Africa
BPPD and the Government of South Africa jointly organized the PCC meeting on 31 October 2011 in Pretoria, South Africa. The objective of the meeting was to review and discuss PPD activities and capacity building of the Member countries’ focal points. The meeting was attended by international experts and PCCs of PPD member states. Mr. Harry S. Jooseery inaugurated the day meeting.
In this events, the PCCs were oriented on Research based Programming on unwanted pregnancy among women and adolescent girls and on population stabilization strategy of selected PPD member countries. Resource persons from Population Communication and Population Council also addressed these issues and these have proved very productive.
Dr. Ian Askew Research Director, Strengthening Evidence for Programming on Unintended Pregnancy (STEP UP) of which PPD is an important partner stressed on unwanted pregnancy among women and adolescent girls and pleaded for more research based programs. Dr. Robert Gillespie President of Population communication stressed on the need to stabilization population in PPD member states and gave example of successful approaches in 8 PPD member States namely, Kenya, Mali, Zimbabwe, Yemen, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Senegal.
The participants appreciated and congratulated PPD for their initiatives. They agreed that these will help them to play greater role in South -South Cooperation and commitment to pursue the goals of ICPD and MDGs.