ONLINE - On December 7, in the annual GPA Advisory Group meeting, members met to reflect on the developments in 2020 and look ahead at the challenges and opportunities the next year presents. The meeting was hosted by Advisory Group member and EPF President, Hon. Petra Bayr, MP (Austria).
The floor was opened by GPA's key stakeholders expressing support for GPA's work:
Ian Askew, Director of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at the WHO, shared two important causes for parliamentarians to champion. Firstly, reiterating Hon. Petra Bayr's call to address the pandemic's toll on sexual and reproductive rights, Ian Askew emphasises the need for innovative solutions to tackle these challenges, such as for example digital interventions. Secondly, he urged further work on universal health coverage and offered to share strategic political guidelines for parliamentarians to sustain and expand access to health services during and beyond the pandemic.
Ragaa Said, Strategic Partnerships Adviser for CSOs and Parliamentarians at UNFPA, began by reminding parliamentarians not to let the pandemic overshadow all the good political work we've been doing. She stressed that the importance of UHC is as clear as never before. The pandemic has reveled flaws in supply-chains and exposed considerable harm for women's and girls rights. Similar to Ian Askew, she urged parliamentarians to remember the way the pandemic has brought to light shortcomings, and to make UHC and women and girls rights a national priority. Again, she offered resources to support parliamentary efforts.
Introduced by Neil Datta, EPF Secretary, the participants discussed the upcoming ICPD25 Nairobi Summit anniversary set to take place early 2021.
In preparation for the event, parliamentarians are invited to share their work relating to the ICPD25 commitments, including on sexual and reproductive rights, universal health coverage, and ending gender-based violence and harmful practices.
Via this survey, we hope to collect parliamentary efforts to meet the "three zeros": Zero preventable maternal deaths; Zero unmet need for family planning; Zero gender-based violence and harmful practices. The survey is available in English, French, and Spanish.
Among the first events planned for next year is also a webinar on immunisation and vaccines in efforts to draw up an COVID-19 strategy.
The GPA Advisory Group meeting ended with a presentation of the newly launched GPA Mobile application, the first global networking and knowledge-sharing tool for parliamentarians championing health, rights, and development. (Available on App Store and Google Play).