Ban Ki-moon arrives today

---

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon arrives here Sunday evening as part of his three South and South-East Asia tours that will also take him to Thailand and Indonesia, reports UNB. A key purpose of his visit is to showcase the progress and leadership of these countries in advancing women's and children's health in the context of the "Every Woman Every Child" effort he initiated in 2010, a UNDP release said today. In Bangladesh, the Secretary-General will meet the Prime Minister, the President and the opposition leader, as well as the Foreign, Health and Finance Ministers. He will also meet with private sector leaders on women's and children's health. Ban will visit a community clinic in the north-east region of Moulvibazar, where community health workers are being trained in a government-led effort to drastically increase the number of women who give birth with a skilled birth attendant. He will also visit a joint project of the government and the non-governmental organization BRAC, which illustrates how empowering women through microfinance impacts the health of their communities. In the capital, Ban will stop at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B), one of the oldest health research institutions in Bangladesh.