Regional Networking Meeting of WHO Collborating Centers in Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health, Gurgaon, India - February 16-17, 2012
The Institute organized a ‘South East Asia Regional Networking meeting of WHO Collaborating Centres in Reproductive, Maternal and Newborn Health’ with WHO-SEARO on 16 th- 17 th February 2012 at Gurgoan, India.
The inaugural session was graced by Dr. V.M. Katoch, Secretary to Govt. of India, Department of Health Research, (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) & Director General, Indian Council of Medial Research along with Dr. Narimah Awin, Regional Advisor, MRH, WHO, SEARO and Dr. Sanjiva Kholkute, Director, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health.
There were 34 participants for this meeting which included members from WHO Collaborating Centers from India {AIIMS (Delhi), PGIMER (Chandigarh), MGIMS (Sewagram) and NIRRH(Mumbai)} along with four centers from Thailand {Mahidol University, KhonKaen University, Institute for Population and Social Research and Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok} and one from Indonesia {Centre of Family Planning & Family Welfare, BKKBN, Jakarta}. Deputy Commissioner (Maternal Health), Dept. of Family Welfare and Deputy Commissioner (Family Planning), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India also participated in this meeting. It was also attended by participants from ICMR Head Quarters, New Delhi including Head, Div. of Reproductive & Child Health, along with two senior scientists. There were representatives from WHO country office in India, Sri Lanka and WHO - SEARO.
The objectives of the meeting were:
1. To review and share the progress of WHO Collaborating Centre’s work based on the Terms of Reference
2. To disseminate and share recently developed technical guidelines in RH/MNH
3. To provide regional perspectives on reproductive health
4. To develop action plan for next 2 years including exploring possible areas of joint and collaborative work
The work done by the institute on Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH) and Infertility was appreciated by the Ministry, Govt. of India and WHO - SEARO, along with our future plans for activities.
The ‘Guidelines for prevention and management of infertility in the public health care system’ conceived and developed by the institute, in collaboration with other three WHO Collaborating Centres in India was also appreciated by all participants from Thailand and Indonesia. Ministry of Health, Govt. of India officials also welcomed the guidelines and expressed their full support to take up these guidelines at higher level for implementation in the RCH program of India.
This was also the first time that it was mutually decided to have a collaborating network of all WHO Collaborating Centres in SEARO and to have a secretariat for ease of administration and as a nodal body. To start with, the institute has been proposed and unanimously accepted as the secretariat for the next two years for the WHO SEARO region.
