Executive committee meeting of PPD begins in Kampala today

Kampala (Uganda), Mar. 25 (ANI): The two-day executive committee meeting of Partners in Population Development (PPD) began here on Monday.

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the current Chair of PPD, presided over the opening session and in his opening remarks said the current executive committee was elected for its first term during 13th Annual Board Meeting held in Kampala in 2008.

"The last five years have been witness to the efforts towards making Partners in Population and Development, a global and united voice for south-south cooperation. The last two years have been a watershed period in the history of PPD, as organizational re-structuring and strengthening of PPD have been done to ensure not only its survival but also its relevance in the area of population and development. Steps have taken to ensure that PPD is able to effectively fulfil the vision of its founding members," he said.

Azad said the Finance and Risk Management Committee and Program Planning and Development Committee have started functioning. The annual work-plan has also been developed.

"The work-plan will showcase redefined programmatic thrust areas to ensure PPD's sustainable development. PPD has been presenting its credentials to traditional Development Partners and exploring possibilities of new partnerships. There is renewed global focus on Reproductive Health and Population Stabilization evident in events like the London Family Planning Summit and the Summit on Child Survival. PPD needs to leverage this development to make a place for itself on the world stage," said Azad.

"India reiterates its commitment to South-South cooperation and PPD. India will continue its endeavours to stabilize the organization and ensure that PPD finds a firm footing as a purposeful voice of the global south. India will also continue to support 10 one-year fellowships on postgraduate diploma in public health management through PPD. The 2nd batch of this fellowship is currently underway while the third batch is being recruited from PPD Member States," he added.

It may be mentioned that Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is an inter-governmental initiative created for the purpose of expanding South-to-South collaboration in the fields of reproductive health, population, and development. PPD was launched at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), when ten developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America formed an inter-governmental alliance to help implement the Cairo Program of Action (POA). This POA, endorsed by 179 nations, stresses the need to establish mechanisms to promote development through the sharing of experiences in reproductive health (RCH) and family planning (FP) within and among countries and to promote effective partnerships among the governments, Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs), research institutions and the private sector. PPD has its Secretariat headed by the Executive Director, which is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Partners in Population and Development (PPD) is now an inter-governmental alliance of 25 developing countries. It is governed by a Board consisting mainly of Ministers of Health, Population and Social Development from the Member States. The leadership of the Board consists of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer elected by the Board for a three years term and constitutes the Executive Committee of the Organization. The organization is a Permanent Observer at the United Nations General Assembly and has Diplomatic Status in Bangladesh, Dhaka. It has offices in New York, Uganda and China. At present, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare is the Chair.

PPD has a country coordinating mechanism involving one senior government official in each member state known as Partners Country Coordinators (PCCs) to coordinate South-South program activities with different sectors within the country, among other member countries and with the PPD Secretariat, regional offices and its affiliates.

The Board meets once each year to discuss the governance, policy, programmatic and financial issues while the Executive Committee meets once between the Board Meetings to provide guidance to and evaluate the achievements of the organization. The By-Laws signed by each member state regulate the governance and functioning of the organization. (ANI)