The WHO Regional Director pledged support for health development in Bangladesh

Joint Launching of WHO Country Cooperation Strategy 2008–2013, Bangladesh held in Dhaka

Dhaka, 2 November 2007---The World Health Organization’s Regional Director for South East Asia, Dr Samlee Plianbangchang pledged the WHO support for health development in Bangladesh .

Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, Major-General (Rtd.) Dr. ASM Matiur Rahman, Adviser for Health & Family Welfare, and Mr Anwarul Iqbal, Adviser for Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives jointly launched the WHO Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2008-2013 for Bangladesh yesterday 1 November at Hotel Sonargaon, Dhaka.

More than four hundred distinguished invited guests participated in the launching. Among others, representatives from various Ministries, UN Agencies and other Development Partners, NGOs, Civil Society, Professiomnal bodies, Academia and the media attended the meeting.

In his speech Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region said that the Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a medium-term framework for WHO cooperation in and with the country, highlighting what WHO will do, and how it will do and with whom. It acts as a guiding organization-wide reference for country work for planning, budgeting and resource allocation in the country. “The development of WHO CCS is basically a joint endeavour between WHO and the concerned national health authorities and it would help strengthen the capacity of the health system” he added pledging WHO’s support for health development in Bangladesh.

In his speech Major-General (Rtd.) Dr. ASM Matiur Rahman, Adviser for Ministry of Health & Family Welfare highlighted 5 ‘M’s Model that; The Man, Machine, Material, Monitoring and Management. He acknowledged that WHO's contribution has been valuable in relation to all of these elements.

Mr Anwarul Iqbal, the Adviser for the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives turned the issue of environmental health and thanked WHO for the excellent support provided to the Department of Public Health Engineering to address the challenges related to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene.

Mr AHM Rezaul Kabir, Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests; Mr. M. Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, Secretary, ERD, Ministry of Finance; Ms Pia Prytz Phiri, the UNHCR Representative on behalf of the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh and Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, WHO Representative to Bangladesh, spoke on the occasion. Mr AKM Zafarullah Khan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh chaired the event.

In her speech Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol, WHO Representative to Bangladesh thanked all concerned for their valuable contribution in the development of the Strategy. WHO organized its first Stakeholders’ Consultation on 12 December 2006 to obtain views of the stakeholders on future priorities. A follow up second consultation was held on 17 April 2007 to present and discuss on the draft CCS among the stakeholders before finalization, Dr Duangvadee informed the gathering.

During his visit in Bangladesh the WHO Regional Director Dr Samlee Plianbangchang met with His Excellency Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Chief Advisor, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh on 31 October and discussed priority health issues. Dr Samlee pledged to continue and intensify WHO support for the health development in Bangladesh. The Regional Director also paid a courtesy call on the Advisor for Foreign Affairs and the Advisor for Health and Family Welfare on the same day.

The 2008-2013 CCS will be resourced and operationalised through three consecutive WHO biennial budgets and workplans. The overarching principles of the CCS encompass the Primary Health Care approach, the human right to right to health, gender equality and equity, and combined with a strong emphasis on research and knowledge management.