Review Mission of the Asian Development Bank headed by Rouselle F. Lavado – Senior Health Specialist, which took place from 18 to 22 November this year. The Mission analyzed and reviewed the progress of the “Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care” project under the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan.
During the Mission, Rouselle F. Lavado – Senior Health Specialist and Cebele Wong – Junior Specialist of ADB Social Division Department held meetings and talks with a number of officials. During the meeting with the Minister of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan Olimzoda Nasim Khoja the parties discussed MCHIC Project progress and its timely implementation, problems and solutions.In a meeting has been noted that the Mater Project is the first Project between ADB and MOH within the last 10 years, and its timely implementation is of special importance.Representatives of the Bank expressed satisfaction with the progress of the Project and the beginning of its activities and expressed their opinion on future plans.Representatives of the Asian Development Bank noted that, the initial activities of the project implementation are already underway and are evaluated to be satisfactory. It was noted that the Coordination Council of the project was elected and approved by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan on October 4, 2019. The first meeting of the Council is scheduled on the first quarter of 2020. Later the Mission had a meeting with the Working Group of Ministry of Finance related on the topic “Health Care Finance Reform” focusing on Case-Based Financing Mechanism. Further, there were meetings with USAID/ETICA Project in Tajikistan, German Development Bank (KFW) and the World Health Organization in Tajikistan discussing issues of efficient Case-Based Financing.
The meeting of ADB representatives was held with the representatives of JICA and GIZ on the equipment maintenance in the pilot districts. During the conversation, it was noted that the effective use of medical equipment and proper care will lead to the improvement of the quality of medical services.JICA and ADB further have discussed their future plans to improve health care services.
Within the framework of the Mission there was also a meeting with representatives of the World Bank in the Republic of Tajikistan to discuss views on public investment management and public health expenditure analysis.
Based on the MCHIC/MOHSPP contract with UNICEF the Mission met with UNICEF representatives to discuss activities related to Output 1 (Health Workforce Planning and Capacity Building) and Output 3 (Behavior Change Communication), and other sub-outputs by reviewing their Action Plan. During the meeting, UNICEF’s work plan with the MCHIC Project in the first year of cooperation was reviewed.First of all, studying the situation in rural areas, collecting necessary information and training material and technical basis for (MCH), promoting healthy lifestyles, involvement of population for more activities, training of medical personnel, strengthening of home rotation and improvement of quality of medical services were taken under consideration the working plan. The promotion of training for trainers covering (MCH) topic, training for medical workers and community engagement activities were given high priority.
UNICEF is one of the key organizations working closely with the “Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care” project under the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan and will play an important role in the implementation of the project. Therefore, cooperation with such an experienced organization is of particular interest
Furthermore, the representatives of ADB also had a separate talk with each employee of the “Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care” project under the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan, reviewing action plans and preparedness of each specialists.
In general, after analyzes and discussions the ADB Review Mission representatives of the “Maternal and Child Health Integrated Care” project of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan had highly appreciated the work of the project. It was stated that even if the Project started in March of this year, recruiting of majority of PAG specialist has been done as well as their training. The Procurement Plan of the Project was also considered satisfactory.
