On Sunday, the Higher Population Council (HPC) held the annual project members’ meeting for the Reproductive Health Knowledge Platform/ Share-Net Jordan, representing various national governmental, civil society and private institutions.
The meeting aimed to apprise project members of the achievements of the project in 2018, the 2019 annual plan and share experiences and information about studies carried out with funding support from Netherlands-based Share-Net International and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
During the meeting, HPC Assistant Secretary General and Strategic Planning Director, Rania Al Abbadi, said that the SRH Knowledge Platform/ Share-Net Jordan aims to build an interactive online platform to support reproductive health research with the participation of stakeholders from different sectors, facilitate the creation and dissemination of knowledge in this field, and build the capacity of key partners in identifying knowledge gap. Abbadi noted that Dutch organizations offer grants to Jordan for conducting research and studies in various areas through accredited research institutes.
She added that HPC serves as the incubator of the project which was launched in Jordan in 2016 and will continue through 2019, and also serves as the national focal point with Share-Net International with respect to the implementation of Share-Net activities in Jordan through local partners. Abbadi indicated that through the knowledge platform HPC seeks to provide experts, researchers and decision-makers with a comprehensive database of reproductive health studies and research considering the importance of relying on facts and evidence to propose and adopt policies and decisions and design related programs.
HPC studies and policies director and Share-Net Jordan coordinator, Ali Al Mutlaq, overviewed the achievements of the project in 2018 and its annual plan for 2019 and pointed out that HPC partnered with Share-Net to organize various roundtable meetings and capacity-building courses, develop a number of policy briefs and quarterly and periodic publications, develop the website of the reproductive health knowledge platform which aims to provide a comprehensive database of studies and research in the field of population and development including reproductive health/ family planning in Arabic and English.
The meeting was an opportunity for sharing experiences, information and achievements on studies carried out with funding support from Share-Net International and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research through research teams comprising representatives of different national institutions.
Share-Net is an organization established by the Dutch ministry of foreign affairs to serve as a knowledge platform that combines the expertise of Dutch organizations, southern partners and key international actors working in the area of reproductive health to support the role of knowledge in developing policies and evidence-based practices and ensure a strategic use of resources for maximum benefit at the local and international levels and establish a platform that supports reproductive health research
