The first national workshop on information and accountability in the area of women’s and children’s health took place in Azerbaijan

13-12-2012

In May 2011, the Commission on Information and Accountability (COIA) for Women's and Children's Health delivered its ten recommendations to strengthen accountability for resources and results. The Commission defines accountability as a cyclical process of monitoring, review and action, linking accountability for resources to results.

The common strategic work-plan identifies seven priority areas:

monitoring of results
strengthening use of ICT
resource tracking
birth and death registration
maternal death review and surveillance
national mechanisms for reviews and accountability
advocacy/action/accountability

COIA for Women's and Children's Health proposed a four year roadmap for strengthening accountability is developed with a budget that allows catalytic action in countries.

Accountability according to national needs

The country teams from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan completed a self-assessment of the current situation on accountability for women's and children's health during a multi-country workshop, held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 8-10 October 2012. In addition, the teams made a start in developing a roadmap to implement the information and accountability framework according to their specific needs and priorities.

The Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan understanding the importance of this area of work and outcomes in improving women's and children's health organized a national working group lead by Jeyhun Mammadov, Director of Public Health and Reforms Center. This group assisted by the WHO Country Office in Azerbaijan, involved technical programmes of the WHO Regional Office in Europe and WHO HQ carried out advocacy work, prepared all background documents and organized workshop involving broad range of stakeholders and international partners in Baku, 6-7 November 2012.

Objectives

Main objectives of the workshop:

to orient key country stakeholders about the context and implications of the recommendations of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health,
to share and discuss the results of the assessment of the current situation on the implementation of the accountability framework, and
to finalize a country roadmap to strengthen accountability for 2013-15, building upon the initial roadmap done at the multi-country workshop.

More than 30 participants including Members of the Parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Health, Health Information Center, medical professionals working in the area of women's and children's health as well as development partners from UNFPA, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID projects discussed the best way in improving information and accountability in women's and children's health and succeeded in reaching all objectives of the workshop.