UN Fund Hosts Talks on Regional Sexual Health Initiative

TBILISI - The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is hosting a two-day meeting to discuss a new plan aimed at improving sexual and reproductive health in the region.

The UN’s human rights-based sexual and reproductive health initiative was endorsed by 53 countries in the autumn of 2015 and is currently being developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in close cooperation with other member states and partner organizations, including UNFPA.

“Whether we want to accept it or not, it seems that maternal and perinatal health issues have yet to be solved in Georgia. We want to ensure that this area is taken care of according to international standards,” the WHO’s Sexual and Reproductive Health program manager, Gunta Lazdane, said. “The rest will be up to the country in question. Our new action plan focuses on developing a broader understanding of sexual health.”

According to UNFPA’s Regional Sexual and Reproductive Health Adviser, Tamar Khomasuridze, the new plan is seen as a crucial tool towards the WHO’s goal of providing Georgia’s population with universal access to sexual and reproductive health.

Today’s meeting, organized by UNFPA’s Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia in collaboration with the WHO Office for Europe, brings together international and national experts and the representatives from the ministries of health and other relevant government bodies from some 17 countries in the region.

By Tamar Svanidze

Edited by Nicholas Waller