Partners in Population and Development (PPD)

From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations

Partners in Population and Development
IPH Building (2nd Floor)
Mohakhali, Dhaka-1212
Bangladesh

Tel: +88-02-9881882; +88-02-9881883; +88-02-8829475
Fax: +88-02-8829387; +88-02-9880264

Email: partners@ppdsec.org
Website: http://www.partners-popdev.org

Description

Partners in Population and Development (PPD), an alliance dedicated to forming partnerships between and among individuals, organizations and the governments of developing countries, is an inter-governmental organization launched at the 1994 ICPD in Cairo. The founding members were: Bangladesh, Egypt, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Thailand, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. Currently, PPD membership has increased to 21 member countries, namely Bangladesh, Benin, China, Colombia, Egypt, Gambia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The combined population of all PPD member countries constitutes more than 54 percent of the world population.

Partners in Population and Development’s vision as an Intergovernmental Alliance is that by the year 2014, it will be driving the global reproductive health and population agenda to attain sustainable development. The mission is to assist the members and other developing countries to address successfully the sexual and reproductive health and rights, including family planning and HIV/AIDS, population and development challenges through South-South collaboration by raising a common voice and sharing sustainable, effective, efficient, accessible and acceptable solutions considering the diverse economic, social, political, religious and cultural characteristics of their countries.

The strategic goals/objectives of PPD are:

• ALIGN: The Alliance will align and be responsive to member countries priorities in reproductive health and rights, including family planning and HIV/AIDS, population and development.
• ADVOCATE: The Alliance will obtain support from different stakeholders, both at national and international levels by advocating for South-South collaboration
• ALLIANCES: PPD will form alliances with selected stakeholders to advance strengthened partnerships in meeting the ICPD/PoA and the MDGs in the member countries.
• ASSETS: The Alliance will increase its financial base assets for supporting South-South collaboration activities on a sustainable basis, diversifying the sources of funding and raising its Endowment Fund.

PPD is governed by the Board which consists of Ministers and other high-ranking government officials in the field of population and development from member countries. Their responsibilities include Advocacy to increase donor support and widen South-South collaborative exchanges, as well as to promote the use of affordable Reproductive Health products and services. Resource-mobilization efforts in both developed and developing countries, and Governance to guide the Secretariat and formulate policies to provide critical and continued support to broad spectrum of South-South initiatives, financial and political backing to the PPD Secretariat and nominate a Partners Country Coordinator who will coordinate country program South-South activities within the country and among other member countries.

The International Advisory Committee (IAC) consists of internationally reputed Reproductive Health Scientists and Professionals from the North and South. Its primary role is to advise the PPD Board and the Secretariat on vital issues and current trends in Population, Development and Reproductive Health and advice on strategies of critical value to South-South programs.

As per PPD By-Laws and Resolutions of Governing Board Meetings, each member country has to contribute 20,000 US Dollars per annum to PPD as membership fees. Donors to PPD include The Rockefeller Foundation, UNFPA, DFID-UK, The World Bank, The European Commission, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Government of Netherlands, The Ford Foundation, PATH- Mellon Grant, and OXFAM-Quebec Challenges.

Opportunities

South-South collaboration as an approach or methodology has not been clearly understood or fully utilized in scaling up the successful interventions through effective partnerships in addressing reproductive health programs. Over the last decade, PPD has published lessons learned on how South-South collaboration can be more efficient in saving time and resources in trial and error. Advocacy will bring to bear the application of these lessons through the multiple channels that the Alliance has at its disposal in particular, in its status at the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for scaling up interventions through South-South collaboration.

The Alliance is making a strategic shift from donor-dependency to become self sustained. Greater effort is to be made to mobilise resources from the member countries and the private sector. This would entail involving other government ministries beyond health and population, such as treasury, foreign affairs, education and women affairs. Higher political will of the member countries is a significant pre-requisite to successful mobilization of resources.

Demonstrated expertise in an area of reproductive health does not always translate to a successful transfer of these skills to others. It is crucial that PPD seeks to build the capacity of Southern individuals and organizations to transfer their unique reproductive health knowledge and skills across country boundaries. There are a variety of short and long-term mechanisms to do this including various kinds of exchanges through training, research, study tours, fellowships, technical assistance and collaborative arrangements.