On 11-13 June the IPPF EN Regional Council took place in Madrid, Spain. All 40 countries where IPPF has a Member Association were represented for the three day annual meeting which included procedural elements as well as information sharing between member associations and between members and the Regional Office.

In addition, observers from Ukraine and Serbia attended the meeting as well as Dr Gunta Lazdane, Reproductive Health Advisor of WHO Europe, who is a standing observer to the RC given the close collaboration between WHO Europe and IPPF EN.

Two specific areas of discussion were tabled: one on the next cycle of the internal IPPF Accreditation process which is to take a start this year and will run over the next 5 years. The IPPF Accreditation process provides for a thorough self assessment and external analysis of the governance, management and programme quality of each and every Member Association. With this process, the member association gains insight in modern management and is an organization that is proved to be accountable and transparent.

The second topic for discussion was Gender Based Violence for which the delegates were guided by Naana Otoo-Oyortey, Executive Director of the UK based NGO FORWARD ( http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/ ).  Gender Based Violence was discussed from a rights perspective; what it is and what the role of the member associations could be in working on GBV and detecting GBV in their direct work with clients.

The Regional Council paid tribute to the Vice President Peter Safar who died in a tragic accident last year. Upon proposal of the Regional Executive Committee, the RC approved the subsequent nomination of Dr Hakan Satiroglu as the new Vice President and of Ms Lenka Sulova as Ordinary Member of the REC till the end of the term (June 2011).