Grameenphone co-organized the NSDP Conference 2007, along with NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP) of USAID, on the occasion of the Program's closing after completing five years of operation, at the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center in the city today.
This one-day conference was organized for the stakeholders from the Government, donors, NGOs, and corporate sectors. The aim was to share NSDP's achievements and lessons learned over the past five years in implementing the project. Issues that Bangladesh will face in the health sector in the coming years were also discussed.
The Honorable Advisor of the Government of Bangladesh for Health & Family Welfare, Water Resources and Religious Affairs, Maj. Gen. A.S.M. Matiur Rahman (Rtd.) was present as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony. Mr. Roger D. Carlson, Acting Mission Director and Mr. Sheri-Nouane Johnson, Director of Office of Population, Health and Nutrition were present on behalf of the USAID Mission in Bangladesh. From the GoB, Ehsan Ul Fattah, Secretary to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Professor Dr. Khondhaker Md. Shefyetullah, Acting Director General of the Directorate of Health Services, and Md. Abdul Mannan, Director General of the Directorate of Family Planning were present at the ceremony. Dr. Henry Forster, Chair of Board of Directors of Pathfinder International HQ, Kafil H.S. Muyeed, Director of New Business Division of Grameenphone, Dr. Robert J. Timmons, Chief of Party at NSDP was also present.
The conference included presentations made by six of the participating NGOs, an exhibition on their activities and achievement so far and six thematic seminars. Seminar topics included “Performance Based Reimbursement”, “NDSP's Communication Strategy”, “Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses”, “Institutionalizing Quality of Care in Essential Service Delivery”, “Private Sector Partnership: Community Health” and “Safe Motherhood: Joining hands to reach MDGs”. The conference was concluded with a developmental drama performance.                                                                           
About 20 million people nationwide are being served by the NSDP “Smiling Sun” clinics and their community health workers. Through its network of 318 static clinics, 8,000 satellite clinics, and over 6,000 community workers, NSDP has played a significant role in providing families with high-quality, yet low-cost family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, limited curative care, and treatment of communicable diseases, especially to the poor.
Earlier this week, Grameenphone launched a CSR Partnership at a MoU signing ceremony with NSDP for the nationwide launch of the Grameenphone Safe Motherhood and Infant Care Project.
Through the Safe Motherhood and Infant Care Project, Grameenphone hopes to aide in reducing maternal and infant mortality, which are two of the eight focus areas identified in the‘Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) for Bangladesh.
Through this partnership with NSDP, Grameenphone will provide necessary assistance to NSDP of USAID to facilitate free yet comprehensive primary health care services to the disadvantaged segment of the population for safe motherhood and infant care. Under this project, free services will be given to all poor pregnant mothers and infants in the 61 of 64 districts of Bangladesh, with special focus on the hard-to-reach areas, especially in the coastal belts.

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