The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF is working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India in implementing its maternal, child and newborn health programmes across the Country to make sure they reach every child and every parent.

UNICEF in Manipur is working with the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Manipur by providing technical support aimed at ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths since 2019. UNICEF team works closely with the division of Maternal Health, Child Health and Routine Immunization from the year 2019. UNICEF have also extensively supported the state in response to covid 19 vaccination.

Areas of UNICEF support

Program management
Social and Behavior Change Communication
Community engagement/participation
Convergent Action
IEC conceptualization, social media planning and demand generation
Capacity building of health care workers at National, State and District level
Support planning, budgeting, policy formulation and monitoring

Covid 19 Vaccination

As part of the response to COVID – 19, UNICEF India is working in close coordination with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state governments, WHO and other partners and is actively engaged in the design, planning, implementation and monitoring of the advocacy, communication and social mobilization strategy aimed to educate, engage, empower and enable diverse population to accept and uptake COVID-19 vaccine at national and state level. The objective is (1) build trust and confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine/s to be used in India; (2) share transparently how and why vaccine access would be prioritised; (3) allay and address the anxiety, fear, stress, and helplessness in a targeted manner and (4) reinforce the need to continue to follow infection prevention control protocols.

Routine Immunization

Over the last 70 years, immunization has been at the heart of UNICEF’s work. UNICEF is a technical partner of the Government of India’s immunization programme and stands committed to support the Government in ensuring that no child suffers from diseases that can be prevented through vaccination.

UNICEF plays a vital role in spreading awareness about the importance of immunization and ensure that parents and caregivers have the requisite information about the immunization cycle such as when and where to bring their children for vaccination, the duration between the doses and the importance of not missing a visit.

The recent addition to UNICEF India’s technical support on immunization portfolio is the Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination.

Child Health

To ensure optimum growth and development, UNICEF support the child health division in the formulation of plans for roll-out and scale-up of new initiatives & regular monitoring to assess the quality of implementation of flagship and other interventions contributing to the reduction in the U5MR. Other priority areas include:

Facility-based newborn care
SAANS, IDCF and other childhood illnesses
Early childhood development, early initiation of breastfeeding, complementary feeding
Evidence based planning
Support improvement in quality of care in SNCUs and NBSUs

Maternal Health

UNICEF facilitates the Maternal Health Division in ensuring that all women have access to antenatal care in pregnancy, skilled care during childbirth, and care and support in the weeks after childbirth. All births should be assisted by skilled health professionals, as timely management and treatment can make the difference between life and death for both the mother and the baby.

UNICEF also supports the Maternal Health team in the successful plan and execution of extended PMSMA.

Partnerships

UNICEF facilitates partnerships with media, especially radio, and with faith based organizations and other community leaders and influencers, to share factual information on the benefits of immunization. UNICEF also help facilitate partnerships with key line departments for effective convergence to ensure that no one is left behind in access to essential health care.

UNICEF support

Apart from technical support, UNICEF also supported the state by providing Covid testing machines at RIMS & JNIMS, Vaccine Carriers, training equipments for maternal and child health such as mannequins, mamanatalie and neonatalie, IEC materials etc.