UNFPA signs MoU with University of Colombo, hands over medical supplies to Health Minister

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Sri Lanka, on Friday (01), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Colombo for the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE), the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region.

The MoU formalizes the collaboration between the UNFPA Sri Lanka Country Office and the University of Colombo for the design and establishment of the Centre of Excellence, underscoring UNFPA’s commitment to thought leadership, knowledge creation, and innovation in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Pio Smith, UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Director and Kotaro Katsuki, Acting Ambassador of the Embassy of Japan, ceremoniously handed over medical supplies to Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health at the Ministry of Health.

The medicines and medical equipment, worth more than USD 2.1 million, were donated under the project “ENSURE: Ensuring access to life-saving sexual & reproductive health and providing gender-based violence prevention and response services for women, girls and vulnerable groups”.

This project, which is entirely worth USD 4.6 million, has been funded by the Government of Japan, as part of a response to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka and is aimed to support women in vulnerable communities.