The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

BRAC Founder and Chairperson Fazle Hasan Abed has shown his optimism that Bangladesh is likely to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in basic healthcare sector.

“Bangladesh, as a country, has shown significant achievements in reducing mother mortality as well as infant mortality in last decades. It is likely to meet the level of MDG in this sector,” said F H Abed.

He made this forecast while inaugurating BRAC’s 4-Day International Conference on “Scaling Up: An Essential Strategy to Attaining Good Health for All,” started yesterday at the BRAC Centre for Development Management (BCDM) in Rajendrapur.

According to him, development programs are initiated in many countries, but separately and in small scale. This conference will bring field experts from different countries, under same roof, to share their difficulties, success stories and future plans.

“We will be able to learn their working experiences in ensuring basic healthcare facilities, and will also present our project details and all related aspects to worldwide,” added Abed.

Mentioning BRAC’s success during last couple of decades, he named the Oral Dehydration Prevention Project and Lady Health Workers Project, which has been highly successful in Bangladesh and they are being followed in different countries in Asia and Africa.

The four day long international health conference is organised by BRAC that aims to boost global community’s effort to assist low-income countries to reach the Millennium Development Goal.

More than 120 international experts from 21 different countries on health and development sectors are participating at the conference.

The opening session was chaired by Dr. Richard Cash from the Harvard University, while Dr Stefan Nachuk of the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr Mary Taylor of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr Tim Evans of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Director of Primary Health Service, Bangladesh Dr Kazi Shahadat Hussain addressed the inaugural session as guest of honour.