Bangla doctor wins UN population award

UNITED NATIONS: A family-planning doctor from Bangladesh and a major reproductive health organisation in Haiti have won this year's UN Population Award, the UNFPA said.  

The United Nations Fund for Population Activities which has now been renamed as United Nations Population Fund and is still known by its acronym UNFPA, reported in a statement on Thursday.

Dr Halida Hanum Akhter, who heads the Directors' Board at the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, is the Director General of Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB), established in 1953.

In 1986, she founded the Bangladesh Institute of Research for Promotion of Essential and Reproductive Health and Technologies.

Her career has included positions with the Ford Foundation, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Bank.  

A graduate of Dhaka Medical College, she received her master's in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, situated in Dhaka. She also studied at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

The Foundation Pour la Sante Reproductive e l’Education  Familiale, is a private, non-profit organisation devoted to  reproductive health and the promotion of family life in Haiti.

Formed in 1988, it provides reproductive health care for more than 1.2 million people through a network of 26 centres. The organisation has provided basic training on reproductive health to 500 teachers and 6,500 young workers, and created a network of 30,000 young volunteers who disseminate information on reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS.

The award goes each year to individuals and institutions for their outstanding work in population and in improving the health and welfare of people.

The winners were chosen from 27 nominees, including top-level policymakers, researchers and health workers from across the world by a committee consisting of 10 UN member states supported by UNFPA.