news and INFORMATION ON sexual and reproductive health AND RIGHTS

APA UPDATE #9, 27 MAY 2010

FROM THE SECRETARIAT

New dates for the APA Conference

Following the postponement of the 10th APA Conference in May, new dates have been set for the Conference to be held on 4-8 October 2010 in Malaysia. Please mark the dates in your diary. APA secretariat will update you soon with more detailed information on agenda and participation.

APA's new look

APA will be launching our new logo and website in June. Watch out for it! The new website will also be providing opportunities for APA members to access an APA intranet to better access and share important information, documents and tools.

MEMBER NEWS

APA at Women Deliver Conference

APA members and APA Secretariat will be participating in Women Deliver 2010 to be held in Washington DC on 7-9 June 2010. With the theme "Delivering solutions for girls and women", the conference will focus on political, economic, social/cultural, and technological solutions. The conference will move the dialogue to the global arena with two strong messages: the MDGs will not be achieved without investing in women and; if the world commits funding now there is just enough time to achieve MDG5. Read more.

APA lunch at Women Deliver

APA members and affiliates at Women Deliver in Washington are invited to join an APA lunch on Tuesday, 8th of June. At the meeting, APA members will share their strategies to strengthen their voices on sexual and reproductive health and rights from Asia and the Pacific and regionally-determined priorities in the global arena.

Population Action International (PAI) at Women Deliver

PAI's VP for Communications Michael Khoo will moderate Session 212: Is Women's Health an Impossible to Win Movement? on Tuesday June 8. Also on Tuesday Kathleen Mogelgaard, PAI Senior Program Manager, Population and Climate Change Program, will moderate Session 237: Women, Population and Climate Change. On Wednesday June 9, Suzanna Dennis, PAI Research Associate will be presenting in the session Contraceptive Commodities and Supply Chain: How do you make family planning supplies a political priority? See more of the sessions here.

Pathfinder International session at Women Deliver

Pathfinder International will share the work they are doing to deliver solutions for girls and women in the developing world at Women Deliver. Worknesh Kereta, a Pathfinder Ethiopia staff member, will speak on a panel about the integration of postabortion care and youth friendly services. Another Pathfinder Ethiopia staff member, Bogalech Alemu, will be speaking about Pathfinder's prevention of gender-based violence programming. They will also be hosting the event Tackle Tomorrow Today: The Transformative Impact of Delaying the Age of Marriage and First Birth. Read more.

Suzanne Ehlers is Population Action International's new president

APA's supporting member organisation, Population Action International's (PAI) Board of Directors unanimously voted Suzanne Ehlers as President of the organization. Organizations including APA members ICOMP, ACPD and APA lauded the appointment. "On behalf of APA, I would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations on your new assignment. PAI has been one of the strong organizations that have helped bridge Asia-Pacific and the world in the field of population and reproductive health," APA Chairperson Sumie Ishii said. To know more about PAI, click here.

NEWS, RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

World Bank's Reproductive Health Action Plan is out

On 11 May 2010, the World Bank released their Reproductive Health Action Plan 2010-2015. This new five-year plan is set to help poor countries reduce their high fertility rates and prevent the widespread deaths of their mothers and children. The Bank warned that family planning and other reproductive health programs that are vital to poor women had fallen off the development radars of many low-income countries, donor governments, and aid agencies. Read the Action Plan here.

NGO Forum Small Grants Facility

In 2009 the SRHR community met at the Global Partners in Action NGO Forum. The NGO Forum Small Grants Facility aims to sustain this activism and ensure international commitments to SRHR, MDG 5 and the ICPD programme of action are upheld. The NGO Forum Small Grants Facility aims to provide small grants to civil society organizations to take forward the Berlin Call to Action and SONGS. They will provide seed money for strategic and targeted activities as part of country led initiatives to promote the Berlin call to action and one or more of the MDGs, particularly MDG 5. The grants will be $10,000, or EUR 7,000 plus a 10% contribution from the grantee. CSOs from the south that participated in, or applied to participate in the 2009 NGO Forum are eligible to apply. The deadline for application is midnight 3 June. Read more.

ESCAP meeting in Seoul

The meeting focused on "a supportive financial system and green growth for achieving MDGs in the AP region." Most countries reported on MDGs 4, 5, and 7. See the reports here.

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APA UPDATE No. 8, May 11, 2010

FROM THE SECRETARIAT

APA Conference postponed

APA's 10th conference "Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for the MDGs has been postponed due to the increasing unrest in the Thai capital in recent weeks. The conference will push through at a later date this year. The secretariat will announce the details soon. APA asks everyone to keep the momentum going and thanks everyone for their good wishes of peace and security for the secretariat based in Bangkok.

MEMBER NEWS

Call for abstracts for FP conference now open

Family Planning International (NZ) has opened the call for abstracts for this year's Family Planning Conference to be held 15 - 17 October 2010 in Wellington, New Zealand. Deadline for the call for abstracts is on 30 June 2010. Visit their website to know more about the conference, programme, and call here.

NEWS, RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Commendation and condemnation on Canada's health plan

The Lancet reports on 8 May 2010 that the G8 development ministers agreed to back Canada's provisional set of principles to improve the health of women and children in developing nations at a meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia (April 27-28). Yet the conservative government of Canada's refusal to fund groups that do safe abortions triggered anger across a largely urban and secular country where elective abortion has been a routinely available procedure for decades. To read full text of this story, click here.

Registration as observers now open for the interactive hearings with civil society

As a part of the process leading to the MDG Summit on 20-22 September 2010, the UN General Assembly will convene the "Informal Interactive Hearings of the General Assembly with Non-governmental organizations, Civil society organizations and the Private sector". This preparatory meeting will be held at the UN Headquarters in New York on 14-15 June 2010. Outcomes of these hearings will provide an input to the preparatory process for the Summit and be issued as an Assembly document. Registration for participation as observers at the MDG civil society hearings is now open. Deadline for registration as observers is 23 May 2010. To register or learn more about the CSO activity click here. To learn more about the MDG Summit, click here.

AAP weakens stand on FGM

On 26 April 2010 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a revised "Policy Statement - Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors". This revised policy in effect, promotes changes in US federal and state laws to "enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a ritual nick" such as "pricking or incising the clitoral skin to satisfy cultural requirements." It has erased altogether the 1998 recommendation that ‘its members decline to perform any medically unnecessary procedure that alters the genitalia of female infants, girls, and adolescents'. Click here to read more about the issue and for Equality Now's Urgent Alert.

Take Action to prevent Maternal Mortality in Pakistan

In 2009, Pakistan recorded an alarmingly high Maternal Mortality Rate of 276 maternal deaths per 100, 000 births. "It is estimated that every 30 minutes one Pakistani woman loses her life due to reproductive health complications. Most of these deaths are preventable," World Population Foundation Pakistan reported.  Read more.

New dates for the APA Conference

Following the postponement of the 10th APA Conference in May, new dates have been set for the Conference to be held on 4-8 October 2010 in Malaysia. Please mark the dates in your diary.