The Partnership Updates - May 2007
The Partners' Forum
The Partners' Forum has ended and we send an enormous thank you to all who participated to make the Forum the success it has been. Survey results show that more than 70% of members felt the Forum exceeded expectations.
The report from the Partners' Forum will be finalized by the end of May. In the meantime, please visit The Partnership website for a comprehensive collection of presentations, speeches photographs and daily reports.
Some Forum highlights with links to the web:
The Opening Ceremony included a series of inspiring speeches by prominent leaders, including the Prime Minister of Tanzania, Rt. Hon Edward N Lowassa and the President of the Pan-African Parliament, Ambassador Dr Gertrude Mongella, as well as a video made by health care workers in Tanzania and a performance by a prominent Tanzanian singer, Stara Thomas. Partners' Forum press release.
An overview of The Partnership, coupled with an overview of the Ten-Year Strategy and the Conceptual and Institutional Framework were the order of the first full day of work at the Partners' Forum. Most important, The Partnership's six constituencies and four Working Groups met face-to-face for the first time, and discussed their modus operandi and governance.
Reports from the six constituencies
Government
Donors/foundations
UN Agencies
NGOs
Academic/research institutions
Health care professionals.
Working Group meeting reports
Country Support
Advocacy
Monitoring & Evaluation
Promoting Effective Interventions
The Global Business Plan
The Global Business Plan (GBP) was presented and discussed. The GBP initiative was spear-headed by the Prime Minister of Norway, the Hon. Jens Stoltenberg, and is being developed by The Partnership.
Country work
Discussion of The Partnership's work in countries was scattered throughout the sessions. However, the country work debate was focussed in Thursday's plenary session with parallel sessions on the Role of the Partnership at Country Level in Scaling up MNCH. Achieving MDGs 4 & 5
The role of partnership A highlight of the conference for many was the rich discussion held in the roundtable chaired by Lynn Freedman of Columbia University and the Millennium Project.
The closing session ended with a resounding vote of thanks from Biram Ndiaye of the Prime Minister's Office in Senegal and Dr Songane's impassioned speech to Partners: “I would like to thank all participants in this first Partners’ Forum. The level of participation and the fact that you stayed for a full three days discussion is most encouraging for our work. We at the Secretariat and the Board have felt this strong support and it will help us move forward to find the directions that the Partnership should take."
Please share this with your fellow Partners. Be interactive! Tell us what you think about The Partners' Forum! Send your comments: partnersforum@who.int.