Sustainable Development, Health and Population Program

SDHP conducts policy advocacy initiatives for PGA Members who are committed to addressing complex development issues that concern the protection and preservation of public health, encompassing population health and social factors, environmental health, occupational health and safety and human health and hygiene.   The policy advocacy methodology includes Programme activities such as seminars, workshops, group work, participation by members in international meetings (UN, NGOs) and background papers.    

Meet the SDHP Programme Convenors

MJ Nolan, MP (Ireland) - Bio

Marie Norden, MP (Sweden) - Bio

SDHP Priorities 2008 and Beyond

SDHP has an important role in advancing the MDGs and targets with direct linkages to all of them.  Within a public health and development framework SDHP has identified the following Priority Areas for 2008:

Sharing experiences and best practices

·     SHDP provides its global membership of legislators with the International Health Updates, a weekly service that offers a selection of online news articles from a variety of publications around the world.

·     Report on a Joint Initiative: Empowering Parliamentarians to Address HIV & AIDS in Pakistan, PGA and UNAIDS Pakistan co-authored this publication describing the successes and challenges of its joint initiative in Pakistan.  This publication was printed for wide-distribution and is available online.

From the motivation of PGAmembers, Ms. Margaret Alva, former MP and member of PGA’s Executive Committee (2003-2004), Dr. Noor Jehan Panezai, MP (Pakistan), Mr. Naveed Qamar, MP (Pakistan), Mr. Zahir Uddin Swapon, MP (Bangladesh), Mr. Abdus Shahid, MP (Bangladesh), and Barrister Zia Rahman Khan, MP (Bangladesh), and with the support of Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN Secretary General Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Asiaand the Pacific,  SDHP directed its focus on HIV/AIDS, sexual & reproductive health and co-infections.   The global targets set forth in the 3 X 5 initiative, the need to reviewnational health policies and strengthen the linkages between HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health services in order to improve the coverage of comprehensive HIV services and advance toward universal access to reproductive health by 2015 were among the key facets that inspired and continue to guide the agendas for SDHP’s initative. 

Since 2005, SDHP has concentrated on policy advocacy for HIV/AIDS, sexual & reproductive health and coinfections in South Asian countries with Parliamentarians and key partners such as Actionaid International, UNAIDS-Pakistan, UNDP, UNFPA and WHO.  In accordance with the global mandate of PGA, the activities undertaken by PGA members in South Asia have been designed as a model for implementation in other regions and countries with accommodation of specific needs of the target population. 

Programme Work on HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health is Based on Priorities Set Forth in:

·   2000 UN Millennium Declaration and the eight, time-bound Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

·   1995 Beijing Platform of Action

·   Glion Call to Action on Family Planning and HIV/AIDS in Women and Children May 2004 

·   New York Call to Commitment: Linking HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health  June 2004

Parliamentary Commitments Set Forth In:

·  Ottawa Statement of Commitment from the 2002 International Parliamentarians' Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD-Programme of Action

·   Strasbourg Statement of Commitment from the 2004 International Parliamentarians Conference on the Implementation of the ICPD Ottawa Commitment 

·    Bangkok Statement of Commitment

and In-Country Commitments:

·    The Three Onesfor the coordination of a national response to HIV/AIDS

·   National HIV/AIDS Strategies/Frameworks

Thematic Work on Migration and Development

During 2005, PGA launched its first project on migration issues as the theme of its 27th Annual Forum on Migration, Immigration and Integration in Dublin, Ireland.   PGA Members and their Parliamentarian colleagues committed to transnational cooperation and the formulation of policies that will help reduce poverty, combat social exclusion and create employment as a strategy for ameliorating the adverse aspects of migration.

During 2006, in express recognition of the growing importance of migration in international affairs, the United Nations General Assembly held its first ever High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development,   to which PGA brought a small delegation of MPs from the regions of Africa, the Caribbean and Europe.  This event focused on the linkages between poverty and migration, highlighting the importance of generating employment nationally to ensure that people migrate out of choice rather than out of necessity.  The PGA delegates met with Mr. Peter Sutherland, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Migration, who subsequently strongly endorsed the key work of PGA in this area. 

To build upon PGA’s work in the area of migration, in October 2007, SDHP convened a roundtable discussion on migration in parallel to the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development, titled, Financing for Development, Migration Push Factors and the Role of Parliamentarians.   This roundtable event tied development themes with migration, to address the root causes and prepared PGA for its 29th Annual Forum on Poverty Alleviation and Employment Generation: Addressing the Dynamics of Migration in Abuja, Nigeria that took place in November 2007.    To further explore the issue and some of the myriad sub-themes, SDHP held a follow-up roundtable event that was inspired by the ideas in the rights-based United Nations Convention on the Protection Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families.  The event, Migrant Workers, Their Families and Their Health : How Can Governments Work Together to Address this Issue ? examined the issue of migration in the context of public health and health care across borders.  The discussion included a dialogue on health information technology as a means for facilitating access to health care and the implications of this application in an international context.

SDHP Programme Officer:

Ms. Eleni Mavrogeorgis, MPH, MPIA

eleni@pgaction.org (212) 687-7755 extension 104