Jordan: Stakeholders focus on improving women’s health across the region

AMMAN - Dozens of stakeholders are gathering in the capital this week to explore ways to enhance women’s and reproductive health efforts in the region.

In a workshop entitled, “Sharing Experiences and Learning from Successful Practices in Islamic Region”, which opened yesterday, participants will share their experiences, challenges and successes in implementing such projects in Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan.

Minister of Health Salah Mawajdeh, Japanese Ambassador to Jordan Shigenobu Kato, and officials from the Higher Population Council and the Jordanian National Commission for Women attended the opening session yesterday, which focused on improving women’s health across the region and how to duplicate successful efforts guided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In particular, participants highlighted the success of a joint project entitled, “Enhancing Self-Empowerment of Rural Women in Karak- with a Reproductive Health Focus”, which was applied in the governorate by JICA and the Ministry of Health between 1997 and 2006.

In a sign of the project’s effectiveness, the Jordan Population and Family Health Survey, released by the Department of Statistics last month, indicated that fertility rates in Karak Governorate stood at 3.2 births per woman in 2007, the lowest among the country’s governorates.

The difference is even more significant when compared to 4 births per woman recorded in Maan and Aqaba, JICA officials pointed out.

In light of success of the Karak project, JICA is now looking to expand further into the southern region, reaching out to six communities classified as poverty pockets in Maan and Aqaba, in an effort to promote family planning and lower fertility rates by 2011, JICA officials added.

The project has employed some 62 health assistants in Karak, Tafileh, Amman and Aqaba and by the conclusion of the third phase, will have covered 76 health centres, according to JICA.

The project is also currently drawing up manuals and training nurses in reproductive health in order to better serve their local communities.

The workshop, which will run until Thursday, will also take participants on field visits to health centres in the south of the Kingdom to see firsthand the programme in action.

JICA, an independent Japanese governmental agency, aids the Kingdom in the sectors of tourism development, environmental protection, water resource management, youth, social welfare and health.

By Taylor Luck, Jordan Times