 |
| © UNICEF Uzbekistan/2011/Pirozzi |
| The Republic of Karakalpakstan (RoK), on the Southern border of the Aral Sea, is one of the country’s most deprived geographical areas and the region most affected by the Aral Sea disaster. |
By Abhijit Shanker
2 February 2012 - The country of Uzbekistan and its Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan (RoK) are facing a monumental environmental disaster caused by the shrinking of the Aral Sea due to a series of water diversion projects implemented over the past 50 years. Increasing desertification of the area and contamination of the remaining lake water has contributed to dire health and economic consequences affecting millions of people, nearly half of them children. UNICEF Uzbekistan, in partnership with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and other stakeholders, has produced a Regional Plan of Action (RPA) for Child Wellbeing to address equity issues related to accessibility and quality of healthcare for children in the region. The innovative plan integrates a cross-sector approach, which involves UNICEF’s Health, Communications for Development (C4D) and Social Policy sections, with UNICEF’s global equity refocus strategy.
Background
The Aral Sea, located on Uzbekistan’s northwest border with Kazakhstan, was once the fourth-largest lake in the world. Since 1960, it has shrunk to a fraction of its original size as farmers and state offices in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian states diverted the flow of many rivers that supply water to the lake, thus siphoning off millions of gallons to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies. The resulting shrinkage has had disastrous impacts on the Aral Sea basin, including increased desertification and significant contamination of the remaining water and surrounding land by agricultural chemicals. The widespread pollution has led to the economic collapse of local communities and to grave health problems affecting about 3.5 million people, including nearly 1.5 million children. Of primary concern is the deterioration of children’s health due to the high rate of illness from pneumonia, diarrhoea and tuberculosis, malnutrition, water-borne diseases and retarded mental and physical development.
 |
In April 2010, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited the Aral Sea region and noted the devastation. Subsequently, the UN reaffirmed its commitment to support the efforts of the Government of Uzbekistan to reduce the impact of the Aral Sea Disaster on the population. UNICEF Uzbekistan has also taken decisive steps to accelerate its engagement and actions in the region with the goal of improving the welfare and boosting the participation of the most deprived children and families. To address these challenges, UNICEF, in partnership with national and local authorities, developed a Regional Plan of Action (RPA) for Child Wellbeing in RoK for the period 2011-2012, which forms a critical component of UNICEF’s long-term commitment to the region. The main focus of the plan is to confront equity issues with respect to the provision of and access to quality healthcare for children through an integrated cross-sector approach which will involve UNICEF’s Health, Communications for Development (C4D) and Social Policy sections.
Defining approaches to address inequities. Based on research evidence, three approaches have been defined to confront existing inequities by addressing health system barriers, improving service delivery by health workers and caregivers and enhancing access through community empowerment and demand creation initiatives:
1. Capacity development: Supporting the Ministry of Health of the RoK to build the capabilities and governance skills of health managers for improved supervision, informed decision-making and equity-driven resource allocation through training and participation;
2. Integrated child health services: Implementing child survival interventions such as Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) protocols for comprehensive child healthcare through technical and interpersonal communication training, post-training supervision and introduction of a pre-service IMCI training component in the Medical Institute; and
3. Accelerated child survival package: Expanding multi-micronutrient supplementation and immunization coverage, vitamin A supplementation, de-worming and hygiene promotion. This component of the plan will help reach underprivileged children living in the most rural and deprived areas of RoK. Targeted C4D interventions to develop interpersonal skills of health service providers will contribute to build trust and enhance demand for services. C4D interventions will be enacted in line with improvements in service quality and motivate disadvantaged families to access essential healthcare services.
Progress & Results
Advocacy and consensus building. Sustained advocacy has enabled UNICEF to obtain the endorsement of its partners for a strategic refocus on equity through a targeted project. A consensus-building meeting was held on February 8, 2011 in Nukus, the capital of RoK. Participants included UNICEF’s technical team, the First Deputy Chair of the Supreme Council of Ministers, the Women’s Committee Chair, the Minister of Health of RoK, and 35 district-level Ministry of Health (MoH) public health specialists.
The Director of the Maternal & Child Health (MCH) Department of the MoH highlighted the importance of the role of health care providers in achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 1 (end poverty and hunger), 4 (child health) and 5 (maternal health). During the meeting, UNICEF and local partner the World Health Organization (WHO), presented a jointly developed project plan and reviewed internationally acknowledged methodologies, techniques and tools to improve and measure child wellbeing with a deliberate focus on the most disadvantaged and underserved.
For the first time, formative research was conducted in the ethnic Karakalpak minority community to gain deeper insights needed to identify the social and cultural determinants of their behavior related to infant and young child feeding. This KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices) study helped identify and analyze the traditional beliefs, spheres of influence and deep-rooted practices that pose barriers to positive change. In fact, the study challenged some of the prevalent assumptions about power relations within the family and indicated the need for a review of strategies to influence feeding practices of newborns and infants. The Minister of Health of RoK took full ownership of the initiative and selected the project districts based on evidence of child morbidity, mortality and stunting prevalence as well as the social data from the KAP study. He emphasized the service providers’ obligation to serve the Karakalpak and Uzbek populations equally. Focal persons were appointed and assigned to collect information about children according to age, anaemia level and language preference in each of the selected districts.
Development of training materials. The MoH and UNICEF jointly developed a behavior change communication strategic plan based on the KAP (Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices) study findings and designed communication materials for medical personnel and caregivers addressing barriers to knowledge, attitudes and practices around proper Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF.) In partnership with WHO, UNICEF and the MoH jointly produced a guidance manual for primary healthcare providers called “Improvement of Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) and Home-based Meal Fortification”. The manual focuses on inclusion and exclusion criteria to identify eligible children for a home-based food fortification programme. Additionally, an IMCI training package was developed to accelerate newborn and infant child survival at the community, primary and tertiary (hospital) levels, while taking into account the strategic capacity-building component of the equity refocus strategy.
Health providers’ skills development. The original plan anticipated using a training of trainers (ToT) model to build P-IMCI (Primary Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) capacity among a local pool of trainers. However, it was discovered that since the last IMCI training in RoK in 2006, most of the trained service providers were no longer working in the health system. Therefore, a new H-IMCI training program was initiated in February 2011, for 30 hospital-based, primary health care professionals from three pilot districts. National-level trainers conducted the sessions and administered pre- and post-session tests for all participants, who were ultimately certified in March 2011.
Sixty additional general practitioners and 90 patronage (home visitation) nurses attended the IMCI training in May and June 2011. The C-IMCI module for patronage nurses was enriched with a strong C4D component to enhance their counselling skills. Starting in May 2011, follow-up trainings and monitoring was performed, during which process a group of ToT participants was identified.
UNICEF also supported growth monitoring and breast feeding (BF) trainings for the first cohort of health workers and provided health managers and patronage nurses with the “Improvement of Infant and Young Child Feeding and Home-based Meal Fortification” training manual to enhance their IMCI and newborn survival capabilities.
Prior to the training roll-out, UNICEF collected baseline data in the three pilot districts using the WHO integrated monitoring tool, which consisted of a questionnaire and a record of observations. Once the trainings were completed, a follow-up assessment was performed using the same integrated monitoring tool. The monitoring results showed solid improvement in the use of skills obtained during the trainings. For example, proper application of primary IMCI methods improved from 25 per cent to 81 per cent, and Hospital IMCI methods application rose from 8.5 per cent to 70 per cent.
Improvements in health system management. In Uzbekistan’s centralized budget system all budgetary expenditures are overseen by the central ministries and directly controlled by the Ministry of Finance, a fact which creates barriers to long-term planning and reduces the flexibility of resource allocation. As a result, and in order to address complexities in the allocation and monitoring of resources, the MoH incorporated results-based management (RBM) processes into training approaches, as follows:
Furthermore, to ensure the sustainability of strategy’s equity-related considerations, a UNICEF-supported consultant with expertise in results-based management and health finance continues to collaborate with the Tashkent Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and the Training Centre of the Ministry of Finance to integrate RBM processes into the training curriculum of post-graduate medical studies.
In addition to these systemic improvements, a pilot test of the ICATT (IMCI Computerized Adaptation and Training Tool) is in progress at the Institute of Pediatrics, through an initiative supported by WHO and UNICEF. This cost-saving training software will reduce spending on face-to-face workshops and support the scale-up of the IMCI programme throughout the country.
Challenges
Increased poverty and isolation resulting from the Aral Sea Disaster have compounded inequities faced by the people of RoK, namely:
Lessons Learned
To achieve sustainable improvements in health and nutrition practices and outcomes for infants and young children in RoK, closer connections need to be established among health facilities, service providers and communities, especially between patronage nurses and communities in remote areas.
Critical gaps need to be closed in the continuum of care for newborns and children discharged from hospitals. Opportunities must be created for community members to improve child care practices at home, to be able to recognize danger signs early and to seek timely medical aid. Positive behaviors can be developed at the family and community level through enabling caregivers to take greater responsibility for the health and well-being of their children.
Health-related materials must be developed and field tested in the Karakalpak language and disseminated to the most deprived communities in remote areas of RoK. Knowledge-sharing activities should not be limited to dissemination of materials. Positive attitudes and good health and nutrition practices can be promoted through participatory learning and action in these communities using culturally appropriate materials and tools.
Access barriers to quality health services can be significantly reduced by addressing systemic bottlenecks at all levels through results-based management, equity-focused targeting of resources and skill-building (both technical and interpersonal) of service providers.
Innovation
The approaches identified for addressing existing inequities in RoK are expected to be integrated into an innovative Accelerated Child Survival and Development (ACSD) package and complemented by behavioral change interventions with regard to hand-washing practices and hygiene promotion. They are also intended to stimulate interest in further policy dialogue on more efficient health sector budgeting with a focus on equitable use of financial resources to provide sustainable access to quality health care, nutrition and hygiene services for the most excluded population groups in RoK.
Next Steps
Continue evidence-based advocacy for implementing an equity focus in health planning, resource allocation and management.
Related links
UNICEF Annual Report for Uzbekistan 2010
Climate Change and its Impact on Food and Nutrition Security
UNICEF Infant & Young Child Feeding
Global study on child poverty and disparities in Uzbekistan
Planning guide for national implementation of the global strategy for infant and young child feeding
Infant and young child feeding: A tool for assessing national practices, policies and programmes
