Greetings from yedi tepeli şehir (the city on seven hills)!

One thing I did not keep in mind while making reservations was the hilly topography of this city. Well, with some sore muscles, here is the first blog post!

My hotel is all the way down!

My first two weeks at UNFPA’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (EECA-RO) have been consumed with understanding the strategic framework of the organization, the regional dynamics, and most importantly, compiling a list of acronyms, 101 and counting!

The EECA region comprises 17 countries/territories: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Kosovo (UNSCR 1244).

Implementing a strategy or action plan across such a politically and socially diverse region can be challenging to nearly impossible. The RO serves to provide strategic support and technical expertise to individual country offices (CO) in the development of their country programs, within the context of the International Conference on Population Development's (ICPD) Agenda set forth in Cairo, 1994, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Broadly, the UNFPA’s work focuses on delivering sexual and reproductive health and rights to populations (and individuals). This ranges from family planning and maternal health to gender equality and human rights, and beyond.

What are the SDGs?

SDGs are 17 global goals adopted by 193 UN member states in 2015 to advance sustainable development by the year 2030. These goals are designed to address global challenges including poverty, discrimination, and climate change, ensuring that no one is left behind. UNFPA is particularly involved in addressing 3 of the 17 SDGs:

• SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare

• ending preventable maternal deaths

• ending the AIDs epidemic

• SDG 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning

• Comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents

• SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

• elimination of all forms of violence

• ending all forms of gender discrimination

• ending all forms of harmful practice

Within the EECA region, key SRH issues that I will be assisting with for the next two months include: family planning, maternal health, and cervical cancer.


More on that in the upcoming blogs!

Iyi günler! (ee guhn-lehr)

(Have a nice day)