Partnership Stretegy For UNFPA Azerbaijan

In the course of the programme implementation UNFPA will partner with a broad range of government institutions, UN agencies, academia, health, educational and social support institutions.

To improve the coverage of UNFPA supported activities and to enhance synergy with activities of other funding agencies, UNFPA Azerbaijan will strengthen partnerships with multilateral and bilateral donors and local and international private sector.

State Institutions
• Office of the President
• Cabinet of Ministers, particularly Science, Education and Culture Department
• National Parliament of Azerbaijan
• Ministry of Economics
• Ministry of Finance
• SPPRED Secretariat
• Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of population
• Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Defense
• Ministry of Internal Affairs
• Police Academy
• State Statistical Committee
• State Committee on Women’s Issues
• National Reproductive Health Office
• National Institute of Ob/Gyn
• National Reproductive Health Centers
• Gender focal points in each ministry
• Regional and local authorities

Multilateral and regional
• United Nations
• World Bank
• IMF
• European Union
• IOM

Bilateral Partners
• Resident embassies and funding agencies

Civil Society Organizations
• Youth Coalition of Azerbaijan
• Association of Medical Students of Azerbaijan
• Azerbaijan Scouts Organization
• Journalist Association of Azerbaijan
• Mass media
• Sevil
• Women Leaders Public Union
• NUR
• Family Health International
• Other national and international NGOs

International Institutions
• Institute of Population Studies of Haceteppe University, Turkey
• State ObGyn Academy of Russian Federation
• John Hopkins University

State Institutions

Partnership will be crucial to improve the integration of MDGs, population issues, reproductive rights and women’s rights in overall development planning. Similarly, a broad range of partnerships will be needed to improve national legislation on RH/R and women’s rights. The following government partners will be especially important in this regard: Office of the President, Cabinet of Ministers, Ministries of finance and economy, the SPPRED secretariat, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, State committee on women’s issues, as well as gender focal points of all ministries. Naturally, the national parliament and its members and committees will be a corner stone in this partnership.

The Ministry of Health has been a traditional partner in the area of reproductive health in Azerbaijan. Other central partners include the national office on RH, RH centers, and the National Institute of OBGYN. In the second country programme UNFPA will increasingly collaborate with other partners in the implementation of IEC activities related to youth and uniformed personnel. These partners will include the Ministry of internal affairs, Police Academy, and Ministry of Defense.

The state statistics committee is indispensable partner for the UN system in Azerbaijan in the collective work to improve data based policy and decision-making.

Multilateral partners

The UN agencies, in particular UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNIFEM, as well as IOM will be a key partners for UNDAF and UNFPA country programme implementation, joint programme monitoring and evaluation. UNFPA will actively support the work of UN country team in Azerbaijan including active participation in UN Theme Groups on HIV/AIDS, Gender, Poverty and Security. In order to advance the work on monitoring of the SPPRED and incorporation of MDG goals into this work, collaboration with UN system partners, WB and IMF, will be strengthened.

There is a strong opportunity to work closer with UNICEF in the areas of adolescents and youth IEC, and maternal health. HIV/AIDS prevention activities will be supported in partnership with UNDP focusing on the civil society and blood safety project. Complementarities of activities will be ensured at several levels: referral and counseling on HIV/AIDS with blood safety institutions and national HIV/AIDS center and provision of condoms and condom programming support at all levels.

Bilateral partners

Programme activities and selection of districts for activities will be closely coordinated with the programme interventions initiated under the SPPRED. USAID is the main bilateral partner interested in providing Azerbaijan with contraceptives. UNFPA Azerbaijan will also work actively to increase funding for its programme priorities by inviting bilateral donors to contribute to specific results-oriented activities.

Civil society organizations

Civil society organizations will increasingly become partners in advocacy and implementation of activities. Professional associations, such as the journalists associations, medical students association, will be partners in development of training programmes and IEC materials. Women’s NGOs, youth groups and community-based organizations will be important advocacy partners, as well as partners in improving the awareness of population on RH and gender issues.

International institutions

UNFPA will closely cooperate with the Institute for Population Studies in Haceteppe University to build the necessary institutional capacity of the SSC to collect and analyze population data disaggregated by age, region and gender. To improve the services to women in early diagnostics of cervical cancer, UNFPA will cooperate with Russian Academy on OBGYN using the technical backstopping and expertise to provide the basic academic knowledge on early diagnostics of cervical cancer, provision of PAP tests and CC screening.
UNFPA will be working closely with experts from John Hopkins University to review the training materials on RH issues, such as complications during pregnancy, safe delivery, STI/HIV/AIDS prevention, including preventive measures against mother-to-child transmission of HIV.