Curriculum Vitae of

 

Dr. Farah Usmani

Adviser, Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS

UNFPA CST for South & West Asia

Kathmandu, Nepal

 

 

\Personal

Information                          Nationality: Indian;

                                                Date of Birth:  18 April 1960

Address [Office]: P.O. Box 5940, Kathmandu. Nepal

Tel [Off] 977-1-5523880  Fax 977-1-5527257
E
-mail fusmani@unfpa.org.np & usmani@unfpa.org                               

               

Qualifications

·       M.Sc.  [Health Policy, Planning and Financing], Jointly given be The London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. London .UK

·       M.D. Obstetrics & Gynaecology [ Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh.  India]

·       MBBS [ Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh. India]

 

Salient  Awards and Honours

·       Training in Maternal & Child Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool UK. Awarded British Council Fellowship for the Course.

·      Awarded Joint Japan World Bank Fellowship for the Masters Programme at London School which included Health Economics besides Health Policy & Planning. 

·      Participated in the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship Programme for seven weeks in 2000 visiting different Universities and organisations in the thematic area of Reproductive Health Policy and Programming  in the United States.

·   Obtained first position in the All India Medical Entrance Exam of the University and awarded merit scholarships for obtaining place in first five ranks during the entire course and university medals in two subjects in MBBS.

 

Professional               

Experience              Nearly 20 years of accumulated professional experience in the area of Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS in Policy & Strategy aspects, Program Development and Project Operations, Management & Coordination, Technical Advisory including review, assessments and evaluations, and Teaching and Training and Service Delivery in India and South and West Asian Countries [Key details below]

 

Posts Held

·      Adviser, Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS UNFPA CST for South & West Asia Kathmandu since March 2001, ongoing. Job focus:  Technical Advisory & Policy dialogue, Capacity Building, Regional Analysis & Strategy development, Country Programming support, Synthesis & Knowledge sharing in RH & HIV/AIDS in the nine countries covered by the CST SAWA.  

 

·         Technical Adviser, Clinical Reproductive Health, Technical Support Unit UNFPA  India July 1997 to March 2001. Focus of work: Technical & Operational support to RH at state and district levels; National Policy and strategy Initiatives & RTI/STI/HI/AIDS focal officer.

 

·         Project Coordinator, SIFPSA [State Innovations in Family Planning Services Agency ]. Focus of work: Programme development and Project operations, Management, Monitoring and Coordination  with Government , NGOs and donors. SIFPSA is an autonomous agency set up in the state of Uttar Pradesh  for implementation of the US $ 325 million USAID supported IFPS project in India. 1994-1996

 

·         Senior Medical Officer, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of UP India 1991 to 1994 Focus: Public sector family planning programming, service delivery, monitoring and supervision at state and field levels including working as In-charge Post Partum Program in one district.

 

·         Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College Aligarh India 1988 to 1990. Focus area: Teaching, training and supervision besides service delivery

 

·         Clinical Registrar, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, JawaharLal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh India 1986 to 1988. House Job & Resident, 1984 to 1986. Focus area: Reproductive Health Clinical Service Delivery .

 

 

Skills and Expertise                   I.  POLICY AND PROGRAMMING SKILLS

 

·          Policy and Strategy: Sound understanding of RH policy and national strategy development aspects   gained through the one year Masters Programme in Health Policy Planning and Financing as well as field level support and work in this area in the several positions held. Key among these include; (1) Development of the draft RH and HIV/AIDS National Strategy for Afghanistan as well as concept note on participatory steps in development/finalisation of the strategy which was finalised in June 2003 by the Afghan Interim Government. (2) Developed draft National Social Marketing Strategy for the Government of India and facilitated coordinated the task force inputs (3) Reviewed and provided technical advisory comments on Nepal’s draft National HIV/AIDS Strategy (4) Reviewed and analysed National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plans for SAWA countries in the 3 UNFPA focus areas (5) Technical Advisory inputs in Institutional Strategy documents such as WHO RH regional strategy, UNFPA’s HIV/AIDS corporate strategy  (6) Currently working on development of UNFPA’s Sub regional HIV/AIDS strategy for South and West Asia

 

·         Program Development and Project Operations:  Thorough knowledge and skills related to aspects of country programming and project development through work experiences with public sector, NGO, bilateral and multi-lateral programmes, particularly UNFPA country programming in SAWA region. Developed country programmes/projects  [India, Afghanistan, Maldives]; Formulated innovative projects such as the Integrated Population and Development Project in two states in India, Joint Safe Motherhood programme in Bangladesh, HIV/AIDS prevention project for Tea Plantation workers, ASRH project Maldives, others. Acquired experience on country programming processes such SWAPs and PRSPs and MDGs through (i) Programming missions to Bangladesh and preparation of a regional annotated bibliography on SWAp experience (ii) Reviewed and critiqued the Pakistan IPRSP document and completed World Bank Institute Course on “health Outcomes and the Poor” (iii) Participated in the Asia Pacific Regional workshop on MDGs organised by UNDG/UNDP as resource person and reviewed the MDG target 7 on HIV/AIDS in the regional context. (iii) Reviewed CCA/UNDAF documents in the region.

 

·         Evaluations and Assessments:  Developed Skills related to program and technical assessments and evaluations through training in log frame and results based management as well as conduct of evaluations, assessments and reviews such as (i) UNFPA Global Thematic Evaluation of HIV/AIDS [Country Case Study]  (ii) Final Assessment of the EC/UNFPA Reproductive Health Initiative in Nepal [five NGO project]. (iii) Mid Term Review Report and recommendations for UNFPA Bangladesh, India MTR and Iran Annual Review.

 

 

·         Capacity Building and Training: Through participation in training skills course for two weeks organised by the JHPIEGO [The John Hopkins Program for International Education in RH] as well as resource person in several international, regional and national trainings developed training skills in RH. Organised and conducted several capacity building initiatives in the area of HIV/AIDS [CST Sub regional Workshop] and RH [RTI/STI in India] , Coordinated all clinical training programmes at SIFPSA for the state of UP particularly focussing on family planning and contraceptive technology update. Co-ordinated development of the Reproductive Health resource Document for the State.

 

·         Management and Coordination: As Project Coordinator of the 325 million US $ USAID project for UP was responsible for the public sector training and NGO service delivery project in RH in my program portfolio for monitoring and programme management. Coordinated mission teams in project formulation and review missions. Coordinated the Social Marketing Strategy development initiative in India. At CST as Officer in Charge of an on including two-weeks at a time experience gained in coordination skills. Coordinated and organised the Sub Regional HIV/AIDS workshop for Strengthening HIV/AIDS prevention in UNFPA programming. Supervisory skills experience as Project Coordinator and Senior medical officer for professional staff and as Lecturer supervised clinical staff and residents in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Interagency Forums: Experience through participation at Country and Regional level in interagency forums such as the UN theme Group on HIV/AIDS [preparation of joint work plans]; South Asia Regional Organisations such as SAARC in Kathmandu, others.

 

II. SPECIFIC TECHNICAL AREAS OF EXPERTISE

 

 

·         HIV/AIDS: Thorough technical knowledge on HIV/AIDS through course of study and long essay for the Masters programme at London School on HIV/AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa as well as regional analysis in policy and strategy development context of HIV/AIDS. Acquired deep insights in specialized areas of HIV/AIDS programming at field level including integration with reproductive health, PMTCT, VCT, HIV/AIDS prevention for young people and condom programming [as detailed below]. Also reviewed and developed advocacy and capacity building presentations on the Economics and Gender aspects of HIV/AIDS. Contributions in section I above in policy and strategy, programme and project development, training and others all include in HIV/AIDS aspects as well as RH.

 

·         RTI/ STIs:  Technical Training in Gynaecology on biomedical aspects of STIs and HIV/AIDS substantiated by programming experience [as above] in development of projects and programme interventions for integration of RTI/STI in public sector service delivery in India, Review of the RTI/STI training project and protocols in Bangladesh. Technical support and training in RTI/STI in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh State Projects, Development of training protocols on RTI/STI and technical inputs related to the National Family Health Awareness Campaign for integration of RTI/STI/HIV in primary health care. Technical backstopping of UNFPA study on “RTIs in India: The HIV Connection”

 

·         Adolescent Reproductive Health & HIV/AIDS Prevention among Youth:  Acquired technical expertise and experience in the area of ASRH and HIV prevention among youth as CST focal point through (i) Participation and contributions in several International and regional initiatives including Workshop in New York by the Population Council on “Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health: Charting Directions for a second generation of programming; Resource person at the Youth Services and HIV prevention workshop WHO Geneva; South Asia Regional workshops on ASRH [WHO in New Delhi in 1998, UNFPA South Asia Regional Workshop in 1999, Paper developed on Youth  Friendly Services for the UNICEF Regional workshop in Kathmandu, others (iii) Programmes and project development in ASRH such as review and contributions to the Country Program Framework Development for the RHIYA [ for Youth and Adolescents]  in Nepal; Adolescent Girls Project supported by UNFPA India in Slums of Jabalpur; Assessment of the Project by IPPF affiliate Nepal on Youth Friendly Centres and information and services for young people.  (iii) Technical contributions to Regional Initiatives related to youth and HIV/AIDS prevention: UNFPA Project with Margaret Sanger International and region project on advocacy for Young people and HIV prevention, others.

 

·         Safe Motherhood: Thorough knowledge through specialisation in Obstetrics and Gynaecology as well as Maternal and Child Health [see qualifications above] and experience in programming through field level work in safe motherhood and family planning in various job assignments. Developed innovative Joint programme for safe motherhood with several UN partners for Bangladesh. Developed draft manual on Essential Obstetric Care for the project in India.

 

·         Condom programming: Started development professional career through work in family planning programming in India in all different aspects. Salient technical expertise contributions include development of family planning guidelines, regional review and recommendations paper on female condom experiences in South Asia, Private sector initiative for promotion of oral pills, review and social marketing strategy development for India, Regional CST review paper coordinated on Condom programming for HIV/AIDS. 

 

·         Gender & Quality of Care: Trained in Gender and RH aspects in India as well as International Training of Trainers Workshop in Washington on “ Mainstreaming Gender in Population and Development Programmes”. Participated as resource person in the Global Mountain Women Conference in Bhutan examining gender and RH issues among mountain women as well as the regional workshop on “Male Involvement” organised by Population Council. Focal Point at CST on the Quality of Care project which is piloting partnerships between community women’s groups and service providers for enhancing RH quality of care in Nepal and India.

 

 

 

Papers, Publications,

Trainings and other

information                                       

Available on request  [ and are  in the full CV]