Islamic Relief (IR) is to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), a leading specialist in reproductive health.

The MoU will be signed by IR’s CEO Saleh Saeed at a UNFPA organised global interfaith conference, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 20-21 2008 and sets out a framework within which the two organisations can come together in order to ensure universal standards of reproductive health.

The agreement focuses particularly on the needs of refugees, internally displaced persons and those affected by natural or manmade disasters.

“Reproductive health is an important area to Islamic Relief as family values and good healthy relationships are an important part of Islam. Now that we have established a policy on reproductive health it means that we can be sure that staff and stakeholders are clear what our position on the issue is and that we can approach organisations such as the UNFPA. The MoU will enable us to understand each other’s views and select areas on which to work together on the matter of reproductive health,” Saeed said.

“We bring to the table our beliefs, our understanding of the Muslim community and a support structure which will help UNFPA fulfil their mandate,” he added.

The UNFPA is an international development agency that supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and ensure universal access to reproductive health.

For more information on the UNFPA click here.

For more information on IR’s reproductive health policy click here.