New Delhi:(Page3 News Network)-Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad has called for further research by the member countries on reproductive health and family planning and to share the results with all the stake holders. Sh. Azad is currently on an official tour to Bangladesh capital Dhaka in connection with the International Conference on “Evidence for Action: South-South Collaboration for ICPD beyond 2014” organized jointly by Partners in Population and Development (PPD) and Bangladesh and also for attending PPD governance meetings. The following is the text of his speech at the closing session of the Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh today: “I am particularly happy that this international inter-ministerial conference has discussed most of the essential elements of Reproductive Health and Family Planning which would be of immense importance for planning for ICPD beyond 2014 and MDGs beyond 2015.
It was very reassuring that the keynote speakers and panelists in each session presented evidences of lessons learned from the implementation of the different components of the ICPD Program of Action and made recommendations to improve or scaling up in other settings.
I observed with immense interest that 3 of the PPD member countries presented their experiences at the London Family Planning Summit, reconfirmed their commitments and shared follow-ups of their commitments to allocate more resources for Family Planning programs in their respective countries.
I am sure that their examples will encourage other countries to similarly increase allocations for Family Planning programs.
I am glad that all the discussions and recommendations that were made during the sessions have been captured in the Dhaka Declaration.
I would request Honorable Board Members and Partner Country Coordinators to insure that the commitments/ recommendations made in the Dhaka Declaration would be implemented in their respective countries.
I was told that PPD will follow-up the implementation of the commitments/recommendations of the Dhaka Declaration with the member countries by conducting a research and will share the results during the next conference in 2013 and we look forward to the results of the research.
Before I conclude, I congratulate all the resource persons, participants and PPD on the very successful completion of the conference.”
