Ms. Thoraya Obaid
UNFPA Executive Director,
UN Under-Secretary General

Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. She is the first Saudi Arabian national to head a United Nations agency. She took office on 1 January 2001, succeeding Dr. Nafis Sadik, who retired after nearly 14 years as Executive Director.

Ms. Obaid previously served for two years as the Director of the Division for Arab States and Europe at UNFPA. Prior to joining the Fund, she was Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) from 1993 to 1998. She was the Chief of the Social Development and Population Division from 1992 to 1993 and Senior Social Affairs Officer, with various responsibilities, from 1975 to 1992.

Helping governments establish programmes to empower women has been a central focus of Ms. Obaid’s work, both at ESCWA and UNFPA. At ESCWA, she was responsible for providing technical assistance aimed at countering gender inequality, as an integral part of social development programmes.

In 1975 she established the first women’s development programme in the Western Asia region. It provided technical assistance to governments to establish national organizational units for women. The programme was instrumental in building partnerships between the United Nations and regional non-governmental organizations.

Ms. Obaid chaired the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Gender in Amman, Jordan, in 1996. In November 1997, she was part of an inter-agency mission to Afghanistan.

Ms. Obaid was the first Saudi Arabian woman to receive a government scholarship to study at a university in the United States. She has a Ph.D. in English literature from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. She is an active member of the Middle East Studies Association and of Al Nadha, a Saudi Women’s Association.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced her appointment at a 25 October 2000 news conference, describing Ms. Obaid as "the ideal candidate for the job". "Her record in working for reproductive rights for women, in promoting choice and improving women's health, is second to none," the Secretary-General said. "She is conscious of the vital importance of promoting the rights of women and adolescent girls in order to safeguard their reproductive health, and she is aware of the need to focus on the threat posed by HIV/AIDS."

In accepting the appointment, Ms. Obaid said, "I hope all the achievements of the Member States since the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 will continue to expand and will continue to improve the quality of life of women and men around the world. "I am confident that UNFPA, as part of the UN family, will continue to be an active member in the Secretary-General’s reform and help in moving forward our common UN programme," she added.

At a farewell dinner for her predecessor, Ms. Obaid said, "People keep on telling me that I have big shoes to fill—they’re right, they are very big shoes. But I can never fill your shoes, Dr. Sadik. The shoes I have to fill are my own. And I hope I learn to fill them in my own way."

Education

• Ph.D. Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A., 1974, English Literature with minor in Cultural Anthropology
• M.A. Wayne State University, 1968
• B.A. Mills College, Oakland, California, 1966

Previous Positions

• Director, Division for Arab States and Europe, UNFPA, New York, 1998-2000
• Deputy Executive Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), 1993-1998
• Chief, Social Development and Population Division (SDPD), ESCWA, 1992-1993
• Women and Development Programme Manager, SDPD, ESCWA, 1981-1992
• Assistant/Associate Social Affairs Officer, Women and Development, SDPD, ESCWA, 1975-1981

Special Assignments

• Co-Chair, Change Support Group, Workforce Planning Exercise, UNFPA, 2000
• Represented the Secretary- General to UN Relief Works Agency Provident Fund, 1996-1998
• Initiated ESCWA restructuring exercise and assisted Executive Secretary in completing it, 1994-1996
• Member, UN Inter-agency Gender Mission to Afghanistan, November 1997
• Member, UN Strategic Framework Mission to Afghanistan, September-October 1997
• Chair, Inter-agency Task Force on Gender, Amman, 1996
• Member, International Women's Advisory Panel, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), 1993
• Member, Regional Programme Advisory Panel, IPPF, 1992-1993
• Member of the editorial board, Journal of Arab Women, 1984- 1990
• Member of the League of Arab States Working Group for formulating the Arab Strategy for Social Development, 1984-1985

Other Activities

• Coordinator, ESCWA Group on Women, 1989-1990
• Vice-President, ESCWA Staff Council, 1980-1982
• Member, Al Nadha Women's Association, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Founding member, Association for Working Mothers, Sidon, Lebanon, 1974-1982

Personal

Ms. Obaid is a Saudi Arabian national. She was born 2 March 1945 in Baghdad, Iraq, and is married with two daughters.

FIELD TRIP TO BANDUNG - JAWA BARAT PROVINCE  (2 ½ hours from Jakarta by Car)

DAY: 3 – Thu, Date: 16 October 2003 . Time: 09.00-15.30

Briefing Note for UNFPA Executive Director

Visit to Puskesmas, Posyandu, Mother Friendly Movement programme; Youth Centre

1. Objective of the fieldtrip

• To get acquainted with RH/FP activities as service delivery points and community level in Indonesia.
• To launched the 10^th anniversary of the ICPD+10 in Bandung – Jawa Barat Province.
• To meet provincial authorities in order to discuss population issues including RH, gender issues and their priorities/difficulties.

2. Itinerary

3. Institutions

1. Puskesmas (Pusat Kesehatan Masyarakat = Community Health Center)

·        Ministry Responsible: Ministry of Health

·        Background: Puskesmas is a community health center providing basic health services (including RH services) to community at sub district level. Total population to be served ranged from 15,000 to 100,000.

·        Staffing: doctor, midwives, nurses, paramedics, outreach, etc. 

·        Services: Basic health services including MCH, FP, Nutrition, Immunitation, Treatment /Currative (in patient or out patient services), Prevention of Communicable Disseases, IEC.

·        Collaboration with UNFPA: through UNFPA 6^th CP, selected Puskesmas are expected to provide integrated RH service covering

(1)   Safe Motherhood

(2)   Family Planning

(3)   STD & HIV/AIDS

(4)   ARH services

However, most of them have difficulties in integrating the 3^rd and 4^th component. Obstacles identified are: lack of policy support, lack of guideline, stigmatization, and most of the providers are not well trained to provide a client oriented or youth friendly services

2. Posyandu (Pos Pelayanan Terpadu = Integrated Health Post)

·        Ministry responsible: BKKBN ; however, MOH and MOWE (Ministry of Women Empowerment) have also go through Posyandu for their community based / outreach programme

·        Background: Posyandu is a community based programme at village level covering 1,000 – 10,000 population. Objectives of the activities at Posyandu are to:

(a)    reduce the number of malnourished children

(b)   ensure that children are protected against diseases through immunization

(c)    support pregnant women to receive proper services

(d)   improve access to family planning and contraceptives

(e)    increase community awareness on MCH problems

 ·        Staffing: Voluntary cadres with support from Puskesmas staff – usually once a month.

·        Services: Services in Posyandu provided through what so called ‘5 tables mechanism’: (1) registration table; (2) weighing table; (3) recording table; (4) IEC table; and (5) Services table. The services at the first four tables are provided by the cadres, and the ‘service table’ is occupied by health providers providing ANC, FP, counseling, and immunization.

3. Mother Friendly Movement (MFM)

·        Ministry Responsible: MOWE (Ministry of Women Empowerment)

·        Background: The Mother Friendly Movement is a Government supported community based movement, which addresses the issue of maternal mortality through broader gender sensitization activities.

·        Staffing: Satgas Gerakan Sayang Ibu (MFM Task Force) consists of community leaders, midwives and other outreach workers.

·        Activities available: MFM is a movement to generate community participation in helping the mother to get a timely and quality services of Basic Emergency Obstetric Care through: transport support mechanism, early warning system, male participation (Suami Siaga).

·        Collaboration under the UNFPA 6^th CP: Under MFM, UNFPA supports the Obstetric Emergency Transport Mini Grant given to village-based organizations.  In addition, UNFPA supports activities, which promote male participation and community involvement.

4. Mitra Citra Remaja (MCR) Youth Center (PKBI – IPPF affiliated)

·        Background: MCR youth center is run by PKBI (Perkumpulan Keluarga Berencana Indonesia), a well known NGO who has long reputation dealing with RH, especially on youth. It’s branches are widely spread in Indonesia (mostly in the capital city of the provinces).

·        Staffing: Coordinator, part time health providers (doctor), peer educators, counselors (psychologist), volunteers, IEC staff.

·        Activities available: Information, counseling and (Reproductive) health services including telephone hotline, outreach lectures, discussion groups, career preparation training, computer access, special events.

·        Collaboration under the UNFPA 6^th CP: UNFPA support a total of 7 youth centers in 4 provinces assisted by UNFPA in providing the above-mentioned activities.

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Briefing Note

Courtesy visit by Ms Thoraya Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director to

Mr. Danny Setiawan, Governor of West Java

DAY: 3 – Thu.

Date: 16 October 2003

Time: 14.00-15.00

Governor of Jawa Barat

• Newly appointed as Governor of Jawa Barat since 3 months ago (July 2003).

• Member of Parliamentarians in 1997-2002

• Has demonstrated high commitment on the grass root development programme and received highest awards from Minister of Cooperatives Department in 1998.

• Initiate the 5 Development Pillars of West Java in order to reach Provincial goal in 2007.

• Inaugurate movement so called: “7,000 healthy villages” and “7,000 smart villages” by 2007.

           (Bio data selected and translated from official Indonesian version)

Mission Report

UNFPA Executive Director’s field observation to Bandung

INS / 06/01/P01

Name                                   : (edited by : ahmad idjaz)

Destination                           : Bandung – Jawa Barat

Date                                     : 16 October 2003

Distribution                           : -

Respective files                     : INS 06/01/P01 Essential Reproductive Health Project

The mission was to finalize field preparation to be observed by UNFPA Executive Director, to meet her following mission’s objectives:

• To get acquainted with RH/FP activities at service delivery points and community level in Indonesia.
• To launched the 10^th anniversary of the ICPD+10 in Bandung – Jawa Barat Province.
• To meet provincial authorities in order to discuss population issues including RH, gender issues and their priorities/difficulties.

day - 1 : Wednesday, 15 October 2003

·         The preparation team arrived early in the morning in Bandung,  was picked up by the PPM (Mr. Idjaz) and discussed the plan for today’s mission. Having 2 PMUs (Mr. Fuad Fahrudi from BKKBN, and Ms. Gondan from MOWE) and 1 PM for PKBI (Ms. Wenita) in the mission, we distributed tasks as follows:

 ·         Hotel Horizon

The team is expected to arrive at the Hotel at about 8.30 am. 3 rooms were prepared for The Executive Director, UNFPA Rep. and Head of central BKKBN. The hotel will be the first destination of the mission before they start the activities; breakfast will be prepared in the room, and for the rest of the team will be provided in boxes. Local authorities, i.e. Head of Bappeda, Head of BKKBN and Head of Dinas Kesehatan will be welcoming the team in the lobby.

·         Puskesmas

The team will visit Puskesmas Buah Batu to observe implementation of integrated ERH at the service delivery level. To guide the team, I suggested Puskesmas to provide brief presentation on current status of the puskesmas, including type of services provided, resources, and coverage of some RH indicators. Brief overview of puskesmas, will be presented by Ms. Otoy (senior midwife, head of MCH & FP section); it was decided to use overhead projector slides as the media. Puskesmas has planned to bring the team in a tour to see activities in the Puskesmas. Tour will be guided by Dr. Hendrarini; head of Family Health Division at Dinkes Kota Bandung.

·         Posyandu Melati V

Most of community participation activities will be observed at Posyandu. A choir of ‘Aku Anak Sehat’ will be welcoming the team to the Posyandu; two bouquets of flower will be prepared for The Executive Director and HE Ministry of Women Empowerment. The team will spend approximately 2 hours at Posyandu with the following agenda:

-          Inauguration of ICPD+10; speeches will be delivered by both honorable guests; and to launch the inauguration, a set of balloon is prepared.

-          Observe implementation of ‘5 tables mechanism’ at Posyandu: registration, weighing, recording, health services (including immunization, ANC, and FP), and IEC.

-          Observe activity of ‘Bina Keluarga Balita’ ; development & growth monitoring of under fives, group discussion of mothers.

-          Observe activity of Mother Friendly Movement; ED & the Ministry will be guided to be involved in Satgas GSI (MFM task force) meeting.

-          Groups of mothers and cadres will also display their home industry products in a bazaar.

HE Ministry of Women Empowerment was confirmed to launch the Inauguration of ICPD+10. However, as she would also has to attend other occasion in the same day, we have prepared “plan B” just in case she could not arrive on the expected time. The “plan B” was to complete all the observations in the beginning, and put the ICPD+10 inauguration at the end of the Posyandu programme

·         At 3pm, all spots were ± 80% ready, and we were able to conduct a rehearsal started from Horizon Hotel, and ended at Gedung Sate (Governor office).

·         Late in the afternoon, the team managed to conduct a meeting with counterparts at BKKBN office to allow final checking of the whole preparation.  It appeared that the meeting with Governor and the Speaker was set in a formal setting where ED, Governor & the Speaker will be seated at the podium in front of about 20-30 invitees, with an announcer to guide the programme. I explained that the plan was to have a courtesy visit to the Governor & Parliamentarians in an ‘in-formal’ setting, as the issues to be discussed are mostly on policy and strategic issues which would not appropriate to be addressed in a big forum. The meeting agreed to make the changes, however, as invitations have been distributed, Bappeda, with the assistant of PPM, will open a discussion forum with “inauguration of ICPD+10” as the topic. I, therefore went to Governor office to discuss the changes. It was agreed to move the meeting to Governor Palace (Istana Pakuan) instead of Governor Office (Gedung Sate).

·         Sindang Reret restaurant has been booked for lunch. List of VIP (and seating arrangement) has been submitted to the manager. Live show of traditional music (kecapi suling & sinden) will be provided during the lunch. Ms. Hera Melinda (PFA) was to be in charged for the luncheon.

·         Government of Jawa Barat would provide a team of security escort for a whole day mission. The escort will be ready at Buah Batu Tol Gate at 8 am; Mr. John (BKKBN Jabar) was to be in charged.

d-day: Thursday, 16 October 2003

·         The ED's team (5 cars, including security escort from Jakarta) arrived at Buah Batu Tol Gate at 8.20 am; those were guided by Bandung security escort to Horizon Hotel.

·         The Executive Director started her field observation at Puskesmas; all programmes were observed as planned. ED and Jakarta team were involved in a dynamic discussion during the presentation; the presences of other 9 heads of Puskesmas were even more enlighten the discussion. At the end of the Puskesmas programme, ED visited PKBI’s booth. PKBI project manager guided Ms. Obaid with brief explanation of PKBI’s organization, roles and functions, including activities supported by UNFPA 6^th CP. In addition, pictures, video, posters and various pamphlets and other products were displayed.

·         Ministry’s assistant confirmed that HE Ministry would arrive at posyandu at 11 am, therefore, plan B for Posyandu programme was applied. ED was guided to observe posyandu activities (5 tables mechanism), Bina Keluarga Balita, and involved in Mother Friendly Movement – Task force meeting. She (and Dr. Coquelin) also had the opportunity to make some shopping in the bazaar. Inauguration of ICPD+10 completed the visit to Posyandu.

·        Courtesy visit to the Governor took approximately 1 hour meeting. ED raised issues on Decentralization, Lack of access to RH services for young people, high rate of maternal mortality, and electoral law on women's political representation. The Governor positively responded to the issues.

Conclusions:

·        The programme was completed as planned. Despite some horizontal or vertical miscommunication during the preparation process, all related parties have tried their best to make the visit a successful one. Mr. Idjaz has displayed his leadership and successfully managed “non-technical” issues in a positive manner. I would also note that Local Government (Provincial and Kota Bandung) has proven their commitment in this mission. Last but not least, deep involvement of BKKBN (central and local) either in the preparation process or in the field has contributed a lot to the success of the mission.

·      Even though, there is always room for improvement. Clear tasks distribution and proper appointment of responsible party would eliminate unnecessary miscommunication.

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