Well-attended annual EuroNGOs conference in Riga

"The NGO sector was one of the most active change agents in Latvia in the 1990s,” according to Andris Teikmanis, State Secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and keynote speaker and honoured guest at the European NGOs for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Population and Development (EuroNGOs) 2009 International conference in Riga, Latvia, on 7 September 2009. Teikmanis’s comment was a fitting start to the event, which highlighted a range of issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including the need for civil society and governments to work in partnership to achieve SRHR objectives.

Dace Matule, a gynaecologist, and President of Papardes Zieds, Latvia’s Association for Family Planning and Sexual Health, which hosted the conference, explained that while few people had heard of Latvia before the recent global financial crisis, Latvia and Iceland are now on the front page. All of the events surrounding the crisis affect health, family planning, fundraising for development and other issues that are at the heart of EuroNGO’s efforts. As such, Latvia was an opportune place to tackle the theme of this year’s conference – Investing in Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Times of Economic Crisis.

As the SRHR community faces the challenges of the crisis – while also considering the opportunities it might present – it is understood that partnership with NGOs around the world, who are working towards the same objectives, is vital. This year’s meeting exemplified collaboration, with the largest number of representatives from the global ‘South’ ever. For example, participants came from: Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Uganda and Zambia. There were also more attendees from the US, indicating increasing cooperation between European and US NGOs. In all, nearly 100 individuals attended the conference, with speakers from a variety of disciplines, including economics, research and advocacy, applying their expertise to the specific SRHR agenda.

More information on the conference theme, programme and speakers is available at http://www.eurongos.org/Default.aspx?ID=18832. The final report, presentations and summaries will soon be available at http://www.eurongos.org/Default.aspx?ID=19709.

Information provided by Mirja Leibnitz, EuroNGOs