Project News

As an initiation of its 4-year technical assistance project for improving health status of women and neonates titled "Safe Motherhood Promotion Project"('Shustho Matritto' Project), JICA in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare organized a planning workshop at the Conference Room of District Commissioner's Office of Narhingdi on December 2, 2006. Mr. Kamal Uddin, Deputy Commissioner of Narhingdi and convener of District Project Implementation Committee (DPIC), Dr. Jafar Ahmad Hakim, Director of Maternal and Child Health, Directorate of Family Planning and Mr. Eiichiro Cho, Additional Resident Representative of JICA participated in the workshop along with Dr. Md. Monsur Ali, Civil Surgeon of Narhingdi district and Ms. Afroza Begum, Deputy Director, Family Planning. Additional district commissioner and Upazila Nirbahi Officers of 6 upazilas of Narsingdi and officials from district Health and Family Planning, youth development, women affairs and local government departments and NGO representatives were also present at the workshop. Other participants of the workshop included among others Chief Advisor of this project Ms. Yukie Yoshimura, obstetric gynecological consultants, pediatric consultants, and senior Health Education Officer of Narsingdi district.

In his inaugural speech, Mr. Cho expressed his optimism that the all encompassing strategies of this project including public-private partnership, capacity development of key government institutions, community empowerment and the continuous process of policy level changes will be able to create substantial impacts on the overall health situation of Narsingdi district which will eventually act as a model for other districts of the country. Reiterating the same opinion, Mr. Kamal Uddin sought support from all quarters for successful implementation of the project.

The planning workshop contained group discussion session on improvement of management for the Health and Family Planning offices and on strengthening safe delivery service system at the district and upazila levels involving all the stakeholders of this project. Output of this discussion session will be reflected in the finalization of the key components and strategies for this project.

Safe Motherhood Promotion Project started its activities in July 2006 covering approximately 2,200, 000 people of Narsingdi. The total contribution of JICA for this project is estimated to be 25 crore BDT during four years of implementation.