Life-Saving equipment worth USD$1 million for mothers and newborns!

NUKUS, 26 May 2021 – In an endeavour to deliver solutions on behalf of mothers and newborns in the Aral Sea area, today the Ministry of the Republic of Karakalpakstan received a huge USD $ million (1,000,000) worth of life saving equipment for mothers and newborns.  

This boost is delivered under the joint project on “Improvement of Quality in Perinatal Care Service to Most Vulnerable Mothers and Newborns” implemented by the Ministries of Health of Uzbekistan and Karakalpakstan, UNICEF, and UNFPA,  which  has  brought immense results for mothers and newborns.

Since the project started, 21% of all mothers and newborns in Karakalpakstan (more than 12,000 mothers and 12,000 newborns) have benefited from upgraded infrastructure and improved quality of care at the target perinatal centers. Significant reduction in early neonatal mortality has been achieved in all three target facilities on average by 22%.

“The project further strengthens the cooperation between the government and the partners in the health sector to improve quality health care services, particularly in remote rural areas. This is facilitated the technical and institutional capacity building of the local healthcare system for maternal, child, and reproductive health service provision, as well as through the promotion of work around prevention and early detection,” said Yu Yu, UNFPA Representative in Uzbekistan.

During the project implementation, UNICEF and UNFPA significantly contributed to the Government’s efforts to improve the quality of perinatal services in the Kungrad and Beruniy districts, and Nukus City.

Further, more than 600 healthcare workers were trained on maternal and newborn survival practices. Skills of health care providers in perinatal care facilities were strengthened through various capacity building on quality of care, counseling, and support to pregnant women and newborns. In response to the imposed COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, UNICEF and UNFPA procured ICT equipment for distance learning for all target facilities.

Tailored for the context of Karakalpakstan to improve access to quality perinatal health services for the most vulnerable mothers and newborns in the Aral Sea region, the project  has  achieved much.

“Now, more than 50% of population of Karakalpakstan will have access to specialized perinatal care in these maternities,” said Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Representative in Uzbekistan. “There has been many lessons and good practices from this project and our hope is that the government sustains and scales up the experience to other districts and hospitals of the region,” he added.

During today’s handover the Republic of Karakalpakstan received 300 pieces of equipment for delivery, newborn intensive care units, and operating rooms. This include surgical instruments, eelectrocardiography devices, ultrasound diagnostic machines, continuous positive air pressure machines and other critical equipment.

The project has been implemented since August 2019 with the funding support of 1,6 million USD from the UN Multi-partner Human Security Trust Fund for the Aral Sea region in Uzbekistan, which is generously supported by the Governments of Uzbekistan, Norway, Finland, the Republic of Korea, and the European Union