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Training Course in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research 2011 - List of participants - GFMER members pages

Zohra D. Shafiq

Bakhtar Development Network (BDN)

Zohra D. Shafiq

Zohra D. Shafiq
Bakhtar Development Network (BDN)
zshafiq.bdf@gmail.com

Zohra D. Shafiq has about 12 years experience in social development, gender, public health and management, working with national, international, UN and donor agencies. She has worked in social development sector in Pakistan, where partnered in conducting surveys, impact studies and evaluations. Gender issue always was a cross cutting theme in her carrier. She has conducted several gender surveys too.

Her trips to North Europe (Norway, 1996 and Sweden, 2000) for brining in developmental funds for Afghan youth and children were done in critical situation – when Taliban tortured Afghanistan. And both trips yielded great results. As a member of Save the Children (Sweden) team she traveled to Stockholm, Sweden to present the findings of their survey conducted in 2000, which resulted in continuation of funding to Afghanistan and strategic shift of the program.

She also worked with the UNDP/UNOPS, as a Program Officer, where her focus was on contracting local and international organizations for implementation of developmental, health and educational projects. She has a good grasp of macro-level planning, implementation, contracting and policy development.

Her work with USAID/MSH, as a Grant Coordinator, also converged on reviewing of organizational proposals, contracting NGOs for implementation of health services and procurement of pharmaceutics in Afghanistan, as well as managing the monitoring activities. She was one of the members of USAID/MSH team who cooperated with the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) of Afghanistan in development of gender focused health programs and conducting of National Assessment on Health Infrastructure.

She worked as Director for Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation with Bakhtar Development Network (BDN) – which implants health services to almost 12% of Afghanistan population (150 clinics and hospitals). She oversaw health management information system, and implemented various systems for monitoring and evaluation of community activities, including conducting of assessments, surveys, balanced scorecard reviews, evaluations. She also is a member of the Board of Directors for the NGO.

Bakhtar Development Network (BDN) is an indigenous development organization founded in 2001 with an objective to focus on implementation of development efforts in Afghanistan. BDN responds to the perceived needs for long-term development.  It chose to involve community in implementation of programs and establish down to top approach in implementation of health and development projects. This principle leads not only to more cost effective actions, but also to long lasting and sustainable support of the communities. BDN delivers health services in 6 provinces (out of 33 provinces) with support of about 1500 paid personnel.

The Health programs of BDN focus on reduction of maternal and child mortality and prevention of treatable diseases. BDN supports the Ministry of Public Health in implementation of its health policy and executes the model concentrating on improving the quality and access to health care, mobilizing the community and ensuring sustainability of the actions (for details visit www.bdnglobal.org/). In order to come up with the best solutions BDN develops partnerships with other organizations, one of which is GFMER. Our partnership with this Swiss Organisation oversees provision of training to health care providers, linkages to research oriented approach in health, and exchange of information among the care providers over the globe.

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