PWD Secretary Holds 34th Annual Country Engagement Working Group Meeting

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Sep, 2024) Population Welfare Department (PWD) Punjab Secretary Salman Ijaz chaired the 34th annual Country Engagement Working Group (CEWG) meeting, organised by the Federal Ministry of Health at a local hotel here on Thursday.

Secretary Health Syed Muazzam Ali, Secretary Health Balochistan Abdullah Khan, Secretary Health KP Imdad Ali, Secretary Health Azad Kashmir Attaullah, Programme Specialist UNFPA Dr Jameel, DG Welfare Punjab Saman Rai, Director Federal Population Welfare Department Dr. Shabana Begum, DG Gilgit-Baltistan Arif Tahsin, senior government officials from various departments from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan participated in the meeting.

The PWD secretary briefed the participants about the ongoing plans regarding population welfare across the province. By committing to Pakistan Family Planning (FP) 2030, the province is a member of the global family planning community and implementing the FP commitments through strengthening its partnership networks, resource mobilization, better governance and monitoring.

The CEWG is led by all the provinces of Pakistan, according to which all the provinces are bound to hold a meeting every quarter which is chaired by the secretary PWD of the respective province, he added.

The CEWG was formed in 2016 to take forward the efforts of stakeholders working in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) to achieve the commitments made by Pakistan.

Population Welfare Department Punjab Secretary Salman Ejaz said all decisions are taken by consensus of federal, provincial, territorial members as far as possible added Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other development partners have only a supporting role. The secretary said the CEWG meetings have led to better coordination between the federation and the provinces, which not only connects the provinces and the federation but also donors and stakeholders.

To track progress on the implementation of the Action Plan, a monitoring framework has been developed in collaboration with the UNFPA, he added. A Data and Progress Review Working Group has also been formed under the CEWG to monitor progress on the Action Plan.