Seven South Asian nations all set to launch massive drives

Seven South and Southeast Asian countries, including Bangladesh, are launching massive drives jointly financed by European Commission and UNFPA to improve reproductive health services for rearing balanced and healthy populations, reports UNB.

Under the programme five projects have been planned for Bangladesh on Expanded RH Services to Low-Income Women and Men, Community Involvement in RH with Special Attention to Adolescents, Improved Access to Better Quality RH Service, Expansion of Quality RH Services in Rural areas and Umbrella Project.

In 1997, signing of the Financing Agreement (FA) with the European Commission and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Initiative for Reproductive Health in Asia (RHI) took place.

The drives brought international and national partners together for working towards the common goal of improving the overall reproductive health status in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

A fund of 30 million pounds sterling was earmarked of which 25 million pounds will come from the EC and 5 million from UNFPA and the NGOs to support the projects to be implemented by local organisations in these countries in partnership with European NGOs and nonprofit institutions.

This was revealed by annual report 1999 of EC/UNFPA Initiative for Reproductive Health in Asia. In Bangladesh, the RHI is being executed and implemented by national NGOs.

Selected local RHI partner agencies developed the five projects that started in August 1999 with preparatory activities and capacity building.

The RHI in Bangladesh was developed in the context of Government's Health and Population Sector Programme (HPSP) marked by an integrated approach to family planning and Reproductive Health Services.

As per the annual report, financial involvement in the five projects of Bangladesh is US dollars 2,632.536 sanctioned by EC and UNFPA and over US dollars 505 by NGOs.

Objectives of the projects include easy access to sexual health services, particularly of poor ones of under-served urban and peri-urban areas of Bangladesh, through increasing the utilisation of Reproductive Health Services, including family planning with special emphasis on clinical contraceptives.

Clinics will be established for providing long and short-term family-planning methods as well as RH information and services.

Specific strategies will be developed in selected project areas involving both adolescents and adults. Clinics will also be established in the selected areas making basic health care and contraception available to adolescent, adults and guardians.

A project is targeted to strengthen the capacity of two Red Crescent Maternity Hospitals in Sylhet and Dhaka for RH service and information, especially for safe motherhood, clinical contraception and post-natal FP counselling.

Another project aims at expanding Essential Service Packages (ESP) service to vulnerable and under-served people by setting up RH service points.

The total duration of the RHI will be four years with one year devoted to preparatory activities.

UNFPA has been entrusted with the responsibility of overall management and quality implementation of the Financial Agreement, NGOs are responsible for project execution and implementation and the EC plays a monitoring role both at central and country levels.