Grameenphone signed an agreement today to support the national "Safe Motherhood and Infant Care" program to provide free comprehensive primary healthcare services to the poorest segment of the population in order to ensure meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) set for Bangladesh.
The agreement was signed today between Grameenphone and the NGO Service Delivery Program (NSDP) of USAID. Erik Aas, Managing Director of Grameenphone, and Dr. Robert Timmons, Chief of Party of NSDP, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations. Pathfinder International is the managing partner of NSDP.
The Hon'ble Advisor to the Government of Bangladesh for Women & Children's Affairs, Social Welfare, Industries, and Textile & Jute, Geeteara Safiya Choudhury was present as Chief Guest at the signing ceremony while Roger D. Carlson, the Acting Chief of USAID Mission, graced the occasion as Special Guest. Also present were Kafil H.S. Muyeed, Director of New Business Division of Grameenphone, Sheri-Nouane Johnson, Deputy Team Leader of the Office of Population Health and Nutrition of USAID Mission, and representatives from various government agencies, corporate bodies and NGOs.
Expressing her appreciation of a joint partnership between the private and public sector to come to the aide of a common cause for the benefit of the country, the Advisor said, "Through this partnership, I believe, we will be able to demonstrate the potential of public-private partnership to address the development challenges of the country."
With this partnership for a nationwide project on Safe Motherhood and Infant Care, Grameenphone will provide all necessary assistance to NSDP to facilitate free comprehensive primary healthcare services to the poorest of the poor in the country for safe motherhood and infant care. Under this project, free services will be given to all poor pregnant mothers and infants in 61 districts of Bangladesh, with special focus on the hard-to-reach areas, particularly in the coastal areas.
Reducing maternal and infant mortality is one of the eight focus areas identified in the‘Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) for Bangladesh. When the MDGs were set in 1990, maternal mortality rate was 5.74 per thousand while infant mortality rate was 94 per thousand in Bangladesh. In this context, the goal set forth was to reduce both rates by two-thirds by the year 2015. Bangladesh has managed to bring the maternal mortality rate down to 3 deaths and infant mortality rate to 57 deaths per thousand by the end 2006.
"Through this nationwide initiative of Safe Motherhood and Infant Care Project, Grameenphone hopes to aide in reaching these MDG targets. Grameenphone also emphasizes on the fact that, in order to successfully achieve the set targets, increasing attention needs to be given to the hard-to-reach and economically disadvantaged population as they are the ones who have the least access to healthcare," said Erik Aas.
The poorest of the poor in Bangladesh do not have the ability to avail basic healthcare services, due to their lack of financial capability and lack of awareness. Currently, according to studies, only 30% of the poorest of the poor have so far been identified for primary healthcare services nationwide whereas much less actually avail the services.
"We believe we should work together to create means through which, we will not only assist in raising necessary awareness but also take the available services door-to-door and reach the mass population of the country," observed Kafil H.S. Muyeed, Director of New Business Division of Grameenphone.
Grameenphone will also contribute towards the necessary infrastructure development and extension of basic healthcare services in these areas. In addition it will provide assistance in enhancing the service quality through recruitment and field placement of additional community-based health workers and up-gradation of some of the existing static clinics into emergency obstetric care centers. On the other hand, to address the complications relating to referral and hard-to-reach population, this project will also introduce motorized vans to facilitate better patients' referrals between home-delivery and emergency obstetric care clinics; some clinic-on-wheels will also be deployed to increase the accessibility of the services to the hard-to-reach poorest segments of the population.
In his speech, Dr. Robert J. Timmons of NSDP said "It is the first nationwide sponsorship in the health sector by a leading corporation representing a long-term CSR strategy ─ a public-private partnership designed to utilize our existing infrastructure and expand it in selected areas to further meet the needs of the poorest families in Bangladesh."
The Safe Motherhood and Infant Care project is Grameenphone's latest and largest initiative in the health sector thus far. Apart from this, GP has made long-term commitment to the Bangladesh Thalassaemia Hospital, organized free eye-care camps in rural areas, and partnered with the Government of Bangladesh and the World Health Organization (WHO) for awareness building campaigns during the last two National Immunization Days (NIDs) for the re-eradication of Polio.
Highlighting the further intervention opportunities to ensure better access to primary healthcare services and improved service delivery through this nationwide project, the Grameenphone MD noted, "Grameenphone also plans to deploy and integrate its technological and customer service infrastructures, such as the 540 GP Community Information Centers, 280,000 Village phone ladies as well as the 600 Grameenphone Service Desks across the country to provide alternative routes to ensure more accessible primary healthcare services and to create greater public awareness at the grassroots level."

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