The New Nation - Internet Edition

Coordination Meeting of the Inter-sectoral Population Projects (IPPs) under UNFPA 7th Country Programme implemented by different ministries of the Government of Bangladesh was held on 8 December, 2007 at Hotel Sheraton (Marbel Room). Md. Abdul Mannan, Director General of Family Planning (DGFP) attended the inaugural session as the chief guest and the Pornchai Suchitta, UNFPA Deputy Representative was present as special guest. Abdur Rouf Shah, Director, IEM Unit of DGFP and Project Director chaired the meeting.

Every year this coordination meeting is held under overall supervision of Information, Education and Motivation Unit of Directorate General of Family Planning. The objective of the meeting was to review and share the implementation status of different projects implemented by different sectoral ministries including Ministries of Health and FW, Religious Affairs, Women and Children Affairs, Planning, Labour and Employment, LGRD, Youth, Education, Information and Parliament Secretariat. The workshop provided the project directors and programme personnel the opportunity to share their success and constraints and to come up with concrete suggestions to strengthen coordination and cooperation among the IPPs for successful implementation of the project activities.

The chief guest, Md. Abdul Mannan underscored the need for functional coordination among the different projects, in order to achieve set objectives of HNPSP more effectively and efficiently. Mr. Suchitta addressed the Gender and RH related issues where he stated that in all societies, to a greater or lesser degree, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse. He mentioned that in Bangladesh 14% maternal death occurred due to violence during pregnancy and that still around 90% delivery take place at Home.

Ms Afsana Taher, Operations Manager, UNFPA informed the participants about the Harmonised Approach to Cash Transfer (HACT). She explained that UN agencies are going to use this harmonised approach to synchronize their financial activities with the individual partners.

UNFPA has been supporting different projects with the Government of Bangladesh implemented by different ministries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) those of promoting gender equality and empower women (goal-3), improving maternal health (goal-5) and combating HIV/AIDS (goal-6).

Arthur Erken at his concluding speech urged every individual partners to continue to act to reduce maternal mortality and involve men as partners in achieving the above goals.