Geneva, 8 October 2009Dear Madam President,Dear Mr. President,I am pleased to inform you that the Parliament of Uganda, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) are organizing a parliamentary conference on maternal and newborn health andsurvival entitled “Ensuring access to health for all women and newborn: the role of parliaments”.The Conference, which will take place from 23 to 25 November 2009 in Kampala, aims to provide a forumfor members of parliament from developing and developed countries to exchange experiences, map out nextsteps and strengthen parliamentary cooperation to reduce maternal and child mortality. The conference willfocus on ways of ensuring that all segments of society, especially the most underprivileged and removedcommunities, have access to health facilities, one of the basic prerequisites to reducing maternal and newbornmortality. The main objective of the meeting is to agree on commitments for parliamentarians to achieveMDGs 5 and 4 (newborn) by 2015. The meeting will also build on the results of previous conferencesorganised for parliaments on maternal and newborn health, the last one being the conference held in TheHague (www.ipu.org/splz-e/hague08.htm).You will receive in the coming week a formal invitation from the Parliament of Uganda, as well as otherrelevant documents (the preliminary agenda, a concept note and a general information document).Meanwhile, you will find enclosed a conference registration form. We sincerely hope that your Parliament willbe able to send a delegation to the meeting. It is proposed that delegations be composed of a maximum ofthree parliamentarians, preferably who deal with health or gender equality issues, along with their advisers.Where possible, the principle of gender balance should be respected in the composition of delegations.I look forward to hearing from you in this regard.Yours sincerely,

Full title: _______________________________________________________________________________Participant’s direct email address

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Personal Email:Office Email:[For parliamentarians only]Please list up to three parliamentary committees to which you belong1:2:3:Please return this form to:IPU SecretariatHeadquarters of the Inter-Parliamentary UnionChemin du Pommier 5Case postale 3301218 Le Grand Saconnex/GESwitzerlandTelephone: (41 22) 919 41 50Fax:(41 22) 919 41 60E-mail:[email protected]