News

A four-day high-level policy advocacy meeting of the Network of African Parliamentary Committees on Health (NEAPACOH) and stakeholders engaged in family planning (FP), reproductive health (RH) and maternal and child health (MCH) programmes is taking place in Kampala, Uganda at the Speke Resort, Munyonyo from 27th June to 1st July 2016.

The meeting is jointly organised by the Partners in Population and Development (Africa Regional Office) in partnership with AFIDEP, Population Council, through the STEP UP Project and Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA). The theme is “From Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Challenges and Opportunities for Parliamentarians to enhance reproductive health/Family planning.”

The Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development of Uganda is expected to officiate at the opening, while the Speaker of Parliament of Uganda will be the Chief Guest at the closing.

Among other objectives, the meeting has been convened to assess progress made, and challenges and lessons learned on achieving the country commitments made at the September 2014 NEAPACOH meeting; reach a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities for Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in the post-2015 development agenda; share experiences and innovative practices in the implementation of the RH, including FP commitment in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Other objectives are to enhance accountability, political leadership and stewardship for the implementation of RH/FP frameworks in the context of SDGs; and to develop country-specific action plans for parliamentarians that promote RH/FP for implementation over the coming 12 months.

Organisers have invited at least two MPs who either chair or are members of the health committees from their respective parliaments and their technical personnel.

A two-day training workshop will precede the meeting, and will focus on evidence informed decision-making aimed at building capacity of parliamentary technical staff in sourcing relevant information and evidence precedes the workshop between 27th June and 28th June 2016. The workshop is being facilitated by AFIDEP under a programme known as Evidence for Development (EVI4DEV) whose objective is to build capacity of parliaments to tap into the latest research evidence to inform their policy making and legislative work. More than 40 African countries are expected to attend the meeting.