Enhancing Maternal and Child Health through Digital Solutions in Mongolia
This initiative is important for child protection and the basic rights of children.
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- Mongolian
In 1998, UNICEF conducted a study on the discrepancies in the data on newborn children in Mongolia and found that almost half of the children who died shortly after birth were not being registered. In other words, the records of children who died less than a month after birth were kept in the health sector records but were not merged into the nationwide records.
In 2018, as a result of 20 years of continuous work on registering each child, recording infant deaths, improving registration, UNICEF, in collaboration with the relevant government institutions created a system for registering each child born and developed accurate statistical data. This initiative is important for child protection and the basic rights of children. It is crucial that this information is accurate for planning and developing health policies.
The role of parents and caregivers is most important in the healthy upbringing of children. To ensure this participation, it is necessary to regularly monitor the child development stages. The Maternal and Child Health Book provides this opportunity.
By digitizing the Maternal and Child Health Book and making it easier for parents to use, it will improve coordination between health institutions and allow hospitals to exchange information with each other. For this purpose, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Communication, and UNICEF formed a joint working group and implemented 7 important changes in the health sector, including the digitalization of maternal and child health records.
All issues related to the child development are recorded in this book. As this book has been converted to digital form, it has become easier for us doctors to monitor child health and for parents, it is no longer necessary to worry about losing the book or accidentally tearing the pages.
The maternal and child health record is not only a registration form that records the growth and development of the child, but it is also an important document that determines how we, as parents and caregivers, provide health services to our children and ensure the conditions for their health.
For UNICEF, the implementation of children's rights, including the child's right to survival, is very important. Equal access to health services for every child is crucial.
We are grateful for the support from the Government of Japan in this project. Through successful collaboration with the Mongolian Government, we have digitized the Mother and Child Health Book. This tool is crucial for monitoring, tracking, and advising caregivers on essential health services, including immunization. We hope it will significantly reduce the mortality rate of children under five in Mongolia. The digital book is now accessible to every parent through the E-Mongolia system, and we are proud of this achievement.
