Dr. Virginia Asin Oostburg, Head of the Collective Preventive Services (CPS), a government department under the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour, recently returned from a Caribbean Multi-Country Program (2012-2016) Assessment Workshop held in Jamaica about the United Nations (UN) Population Fund (UNFPA).
The UNFPA is an international development agency that is committed to delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
The Fund operates in over 136 countries and supports programs in more than 156 countries and territories to increase access of women, men and young people to sexual reproductive health and rights, assisting 22 countries in the sub-region in implementing the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
The program areas of focus are: family planning; maternal mortality; adolescent sexual and reproductive health; HIV; gender based violence; disaster risk mitigation and adaptation; data for development.
The self-assessment workshop took place to identify key lessons from the last program cycle that need to be factored in the design of the new multi-country program; secondly, to contribute to the accountability to national and sub-regional stakeholders and to the UNFPA.
The program covered the English and the Dutch-speaking Caribbean, encompassing the design of the program, the implementation process and the results achieved, and in connection with the context in which UNFPA has been operating.
The dimensions of analysis took into consideration relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, strategic positioning and sustainability.
Based on the discussions that took place at the workshop, participants proposed actionable recommendations for the design of the new Multi-Country Program for the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean.
The UNFPA will now review the Strategic Document that will also be a part of other UN plans and other Regional programs. According to Dr. Asin, this is a very important milestone as it would mean support from UNFPA would lead to the finalization of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy and the preparation for implementation of family planning on Sint Maarten.
The meeting took place February 2-3 at The Knutsford Court Hotel, Kingston, Jamaica.