GHANAIAN RURAL HEALTH INNOVATOR, REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NGO

WIN UNITED NATIONS POPULATION AWARD

NEW YORK, 17 April 2002 (UNFPA) –- Dr. Kwasi Odoi-Agyarko, the leader of an innovative rural health programme in Ghana, and EngenderHealth, a non-governmental organization that trains and gives technical assistance to reproductive health service providers in developing countries, will share the 2002 United Nations Population Award.

The Committee for the United Nations Population Award selected the winners on 10 April.  Each winner will receive a diploma, a gold medal and an equal share of a monetary prize during a ceremony at United Nations Headquarters in New York in June.

The award is presented annually to individuals and institutions that have made outstanding contributions to increasing the awareness of, and solutions to, population problems.  The committee is made up of representatives of Member States of the United Nations elected by the Economic and Social Council for terms of three years.  The current members are Burundi, Cape Verde, Haiti, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Republic of Moldova and the Netherlands.

The UN Secretary-General and the UNFPA Executive Director serve as ex-officio members.  The UNFPA also serves as secretariat to the committee.

Dr. Odoi-Agyarko, Executive Director of the Rural Help Integrated (RHI) project in Ghana’s Upper East Region, was selected winner of the individual award “for his outstanding leadership and achievement in the field of reproductive health in Ghana”.  Under Dr. Odoi-Agyarko’s leadership, the RHI has become known for its innovation and cultural sensitivity.  He is credited with working to increase male involvement in contraceptive use, fostering effective project management systems and project leadership, promoting community-based reproductive health services, and significantly raising awareness of female genital cutting in Ghana.

EngenderHealth, the winner in the institutional category, was selected for its global contributions in providing access to quality family planning and related reproductive health service delivery in resource-poor countries and the United States.

Formerly known as AVSC International, the organization was started in 1943 to ensure that United States couples could choose surgical sterilization services and that those services were voluntary and safe.  In 1973, it expanded its work to the developing world, making it possible for trained medical staff to offer voluntary female sterilization and vasectomy at low cost in rural health facilities.

Today, EngenderHealth provides technical assistance on a full range of reproductive and sexual health services including family planning, maternal and child health, prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and reproductive health care for men.  The agency also engages in research and development on new approaches to reproductive health services, including cervical cancer screening and treatment and services for women with obstetric fistulae.

There were 21 nominations for the 2002 award, including 10 individuals and 11 institutions.  Nominations can be made by United Nations Member States, intergovernmental organizations engaged in population-related activities, population related non-governmental organizations having consultative status with the United Nations, university professors of population or related studies, heads of population-related institutions and past laureates.

For further information, please contact the secretariat of the award committee, Obi Emekekwue, emekekwue@unfpa.org, tel. 212-297-5043 or Abubakar Dungus, dungus@unfpa.org, tel. +1-212-297-5031, fax: 212-557-6416.

* *** *