UNFPA ON GAPO’S BEST PRACTICES

UNFPA consultant Dra. Carmelita C. Canilia, M.D. ,UNFPA City Programme Coordinator Dr. Angel Umali and Assistant City Health Officer Dr. Bryan Tubban made a courtesy call on Olongapo Mayor “Bong” Gordon recently to formally inform the mayor that they will conduct a cost-effective study on the Reproductive Health Program of the city.

The UNFPA is in the process of documenting best practices of Olongapo City based on the 6th Country Programme outputs and outcomes.

According to Dr. Umali, Olongapo City was chosen as a subject of study because of its better performance in the implementation of the Reproductive Health programs. The 6th Country Programme focuses on three (3) core programme areas namely, “Population and Development”, “Reproductive Health”, “Gender and Culture”.

Monitoring and evaluation of reproductive health and population programme activities were undertaken with use of the results of the community assessments on different health centers.

It can be recalled that in 2007, Mayor Bong Gordon led the launching of the project called Population and Development Strategies (PDS) Program of the UNFPA.

The PDS Program is one of the major components of the 6th Country Program of UNFPA in the Philippines wherein they work on the advocacy objectives of the United Nations (UN).

The pro-poor policy and intervention strategy on reproductive health of the city were used to identify poor communities and engage civil society organizations to achieve better results.

From left: Dr. Bryan Tubban, assistant city health officer, Dr. Angel Umali, UNFPA city programme coordinator and Dra. Carmelita C. Canilia, UNFPA consultant, M.D during their courtesy visit to Mayor James “Bong” Gordon, Jr. recently.