MDG5 Meshwork update

MDG5 Meshwork update

Anne-Marie Voorhoeve, CHE NL Strategic Connector

Dear partners in the MDG5 Meshwork,

The MDG5 Meshwork was present at our partner International Confederation of Midwives’ 29th Triennial Congress for Midwives, Durban, South Africa, June 19-23, 2011. This congress of 4 days, attended by 3000 midwives from over 100 countries, was a great opportunity to share projects of the MDG5 Meshwork with the world.

Many of our partners were present like Cordaid, Afghan Midwives Association (AMA), University of Midwifery Education & Studies (AVM), Centre for Human Emergence (CHE NL), Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Royal Dutch Organisation of Midwives (KNOV), Sierra Leone Midwives Association (SLMA), the schools for Midwifery in Freetown and Makeni and of course ICM.  Together with the midwives of the Twin-to-Twin project there were more than 70 MDG5 Meshwork participants.

During the Congress opening ceremony on Sunday, June 19, ICM president Bridget Lynch publicly thanked the Dutch Government for their long standing support to midwifery and gave a special thanks for their support to the twinning and other MDG5 Meshwork activities.

Theme of our contribution to the congress participants in our booth and of our activities in the Exhibition Hall was:  Which Piece of the puzzle do you hold?, inviting people into meaningful conversations. It was great to share knowledge, best practices and experiences with others from all over the world, working towards the same goal: achieving MDG5.

In short the results and effects of the Durban event were:

• Acquiring and exchanging knowledge
• Sharing experiences and learnings
• Co-creating action plans
• Spreading ‘theory of emergence of meshworking’
• Profiling partners and projects
• Facilitaton strategic connections
• Exploring patterns of innovative solutions
• Building personal relationships
• Strengthening collaboration

After one of the presentations about MDG5 Meshwork’s capacity building Professor Eddie Mhlanga, Chief Director in the Maternal Child and Women’s Health, Department of Health in South Africa, publicly thanked the MDG5 Meshwork for its achievements: ‘I am very grateful that Cordaid and the MDG5 Meshwork are doing something that most other donors are not doing. Donors often do not develop human resources and programs from the ground. They come just from specific programs, hoping that other people have developed already the capacity and structures. Cordaid and the MDG5 Meshwork come and bravely go to the ground and develop that with the people themselves, so that the programs are also sustainable. I am really thankful for them to keep up the good work. I hope that others take up the challenge and learn from you. Thank you very much!’

Daily released newsflashes and other MDG5 Meshwork can be found on our website www.mdg5-meshwork.org.