Arefin Amal Islam

I am a master in Public Health in Health Education with a medical background and 30 years of working experience in Health and Family Planning in UN agency as well as local and international NGOs. My main interests and experiences are related to managing family planning, reproductive, maternal and newborn health program with focus on improving health and family planning service delivery systems. Although most of my main experience has been in Bangladesh, I have provided expert advice several times as requested by WHO in international settings in India and Sri Lanka. I was in the leading position of the WHO led polio eradication program in Bangladesh, and I led the technical team of the USAID funded largest NGO based family planning, reproductive and MCH service delivery program in Bangladesh e.g. Smiling Sun Franchise Program of the Chemonics International in the past. Recently, I had contributed a lot in developing the national guidelines for new newborn health interventions (e.g. KMC, Chlorhexidine, Newborn Sepsis Management, ACS) as a technical lead from Save the Children along with the professional societies like Obstetrics and Gynecological Society of Bangladesh (OGSB), Bangladesh Pediatric Association (BPA), Bangladesh Perinatal Society (BPS) and Bangladesh Neonatal Forum (BNF). Currently I am engaged in implementing community based program geared to address LINC factors of prematurity in order to prevent preterm births with Born On Time project, an innovative public-private intervention implemented in three countries namely, Mali, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. Under this project we work to strengthen safe deliveries in the community level facilities of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This project is funded by Global Affairs Canada and Johnson & Johnson. I am a passionate worker to premature births and to ensure survival of newborns. I was a START Network and CHS Alliance Coach and one of the seven national trainers of the training of Managing High Performance for Save the Children’s mid-level managers. In last June 2019, I facilitated Managing High Performance training for Save the Children Indonesia’s mid-level Manager.