UNFPA Executive Director Visits Uzbekistan

Tashkent, 30-31 October 2012 – Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director (ED) of UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations makes his first official country visit to Uzbekistan.

On 1 January 2011, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, a physician and public health expert, became only the fourth Executive Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. He holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Prior to that, Dr. Osotimehin was Nigeria’s Minister of Health and Director-General of Nigeria’s National Agency for the Control of AIDS, which coordinates HIV and AIDS work in a country of more than 160 million people.

As this will be a short visit, the emphasis will be put on high-level meetings with Government officials, including with the Deputy Prime Minister (Social Sector) and Chair of the Women’s Committee (also Deputy Prime Minister). In addition there will be encounters with civil society and visit to health clinic. It is expected that in the course of the visit Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin will discuss progress of the country in achieving MDGs and ICPD goals and encourage more Uzbekistan’s engagement in defining post-2015 MDG and post-2014 ICPD agenda

Executive Director meets Dr. Anvar Alimov the Minister of Health on his first day to discuss the health situation in Uzbekistan and the contribution of the country progress on improvement of reproductive and maternal health and the contribution of the UNFPA to the development of this sector. ED then visits the UNFPA supported National Perinatal Centre at the outskirts of Tashkent. The National Perinatal Center of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan was established in 2002 to provide highly quality referral care to pregnant women, women in childbirth, women recently confined and newborns from all regions of Uzbekistan. With the support of UNFPA and other International agencies the center has adopted and implements international standards on Safe Motherhood and Childcare.

At the center, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin goes to attend the Press Briefing with national journalists. During the second day of the visit the ED will have meetings with Dr. Adkham Ikramov the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the social sector and Ms. Elmira Basitkhnova, Deputy Prime Minister and the Chairwoman of the Women’s Committee to discuss cooperation between UNFPA and the Government of Uzbekistan. He will also visit UNFPA supported NGO and conducted a meeting with young people.

The UNFPA has been supporting the government’s efforts to improve the welfare of citizens since 1993. Under its third country programme (2010-2015), the UNFPA continues to focus on promoting reproductive health and rights, ensuring full implementation of women’s and men’s rights, opportunities, and responsibilities, and advancing national capacities to use population data for development programmes. The UNFPA has helped to strengthen healthcare policies and frameworks, provide essential equipment, and build the capacity of medical personnel. The latter has been achieved through training more than 10,000 healthcare providers on different aspects of reproductive health and rights.