An agreement on the project was signed between the Ministry of Health, UNICEF and the European Union (EU) in July this year. It marked a continuation of the successful and strong partnership between these three parties in implementing of the innovative “Improvement of Mother and Child Health Service” funded by the EU from 2008 to 2011.

Implemented in eight regions of Uzbekistan, that project represented a radical change in approach to and quality of healthcare services. It brought scalable and cost-effective solutions to providing equitable access to health services for mothers and children. In the framework of the project, over 17,000 healthcare providers upgraded their skills and knowledge through 17 established training centres. But more importantly, it gave compelling evidence that an integrated package of newborn and child survival interventions along the continuum of care from pre-pregnancy to childhood can significantly reduce neonatal morbidity and mortality, thus bringing the country closer to attaining Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.

IMCHS Phase II comes at a strategic time when close to a 100 governments, including the Government of Uzbekistan, and a multitude of partners from the private sector, civil society, and faith-based organizations joined the Call for Action ‘Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed’.

This project will now be implemented across the entire country over the course of three years and benefit more than 13,000 of healthcare professionals, nurses, health managers, medical and nursing students and their teachers. In turn, an estimated population of 15.5 million people residing in rural areas, including 3.5 million children under-five years of age, will benefit from their improved capacity to provide high quality services.

It focuses on the following three inter-linked components that are essential for long-term and sustainable results:

- Strengthening health systems to institutionalize innovative, cost effective and efficient mother and child healthcare in line with international standards;

- Integrating internationally accepted protocols and training guidelines in pre and in-service curricula of medical institutes so that current and future healthcare professionals deliver quality mother and child health services; and

- Integrating the maternal and child health care at the community/household level through building better parenting skills through community based participatory approaches.

The programme is valued at 7.19 million euros out of which European Union contribution consists of 6.7 million euros, including 1.7 million euros of equipment for selected perinatal centres and maternities of the country.