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Recently, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the Inter-Ministerial Conference by Partners in Population and Development (PPD), through Video Conference
What is Partners in Population and Development (PPD)?
- PDP is an intergovernmental initiative created specifically for the purpose of expanding and improving 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 intergovernmental 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 (RH) and family planning (FP) within and among countries
- Member countries: It is represented by 27 developing countries including India.
- PDP’s secretariat is located at Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Strategic priorities of PDP:
Following are selected as strategic priority areas for the next five (2020 – 2024) year plan of PPD:
- Population dynamics, demographic dividend and development
- Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights including family planning
- Maternal, children’s and adolescents’ health
- Healthy and active ageing
- Social cohesion of migrants and their SRHR
- Health, including reproductive health, and poverty alleviation
- Preventing Gender-based violence
17th Inter-Ministerial Conference by PPD
- 17th International Inter-Ministerial Conference on South-South Cooperation in Population and Development entitled “Nairobi Commitments and the 2030 Agenda: Taking stock and looking ahead in post COVID-19 crisis.”
- This conference was jointly sponsored by Partners in Population and Development (PPD), the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), and National Health Commission of China (as Chair of PPD) with three unique sessions.
A brief note on Nairobi Summit 2019
2019 marked the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, where 179 governments adopted a landmark Programme of Action which set out to empower women and girls for their sake, and for the benefit of their families, communities and nations.
The governments of Kenya and Denmark and UNFPA co-convened the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25
The Summit took an integrated approach, covering five themes and highlighting the power of gender equality, youth leadership, political and community leadership, innovation and data, and partnerships to accelerate progress throughout.
- Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights as a part of universal health coverage.
- Financing required to complete the ICPD Programme of Action, and to sustain the gains made.
- Drawing on demographic diversity to drive economic growth and achieve sustainable development.
- Ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
- Upholding the right to sexual and reproductive health care even in humanitarian and fragile contexts.
India’s initiatives in this regard
Following are the initiatives of India regarding its commitments at the Nairobi summit:
- Universal Health Coverage through its Flagship Programme, ‘Ayushman Bharat
- National Health Protection Scheme- providing health care coverage of 7000 US dollars per family per year
- For achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target for reducing Maternal Mortality Rate to less than 70 by 2030 India has implemented a program called SUMAN which means Safe Motherhood Assurance.
- With aspirations of achieving Universal Health care, India’s National Health Policy 2017 aims at raising public health expenditure to 2.5 percent of the GDP.
- India’s COVID response started even before it was declared as a pandemic by WHO and India had geared up much before the first case was detected on January 30, 2020
