KARACHI, Feb 28: The Aga Khan University in a two-week workshop has trained 43 health professionals on reproductive health issues, under a programme supported by UNFPA and other international and national establishments, recently.

The focal person of the programme, Dr Neelofar Sami said on Tuesday that health professionals were trained to achieve Millennium Development Goals in health, with special reference to reproductive health sector. The respond was well up to mark and we intend to hold a couple of similar workshops in the city in coming days, she added.

The Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) organised the course titled “Sensitisation on Millennium Development Goals: Poverty Reduction Strategies, Reproductive Health and Health Sector Reform”. In addition to funding by international organisations, the training course was offered in collaboration with Health and Population Welfare ministries, while technical support was provided by the World Bank Institute, Washington DC.

Targeting mid level managers, policy makers, public health professionals, both from public and private sectors, speakers of the course highlighted the prerequisites and imperatives to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Pakistan through health sector reforms and poverty reduction strategies and concepts, including health systems, inequalities in health, service delivery gaps, problems in resource allocation and priority setting, Dr Sami mentioned.