2006 was a year of transitions and reflection, and thus an extremely challenging and rewarding year for ARROW. We concluded our “2002-2006/7 Work Programme and Budget” (WPB 2002-2006/7) and successfully developed the next five-year strategic plan (“2006-2011 Work Programme and Budget” or WPB 2006-2011). In developing this project document used to source core funding for the organisation, we had to be more strategic and guarantee the continued relevance of the issues we confront and the strategies we employ given an external environment that is increasingly becoming more difficult for advocating SRHR and women-centred and affordable health services.
We held a Strategic Planning Meeting in April together with 17 partners from nine countries across Asia-Pacific and were able to get key information to construct a strategic plan that is more closely reflective of the region’s needs. A very significant result of the meeting was the identification of new critical areas of concern for ARROW in the next five years. These are:
• Pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths and disabilities (PCRDD);
• Equity issues in the face of globalisation, privatisation and health sector reforms; and
• The impact of religious and political and fundamentalism on SRHR.