Technical Assistance for Capacity Building in Midwifery, Information and Logistics (TACMIL) organized a provincial launch of “Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2006-07 for Sindh and Balochistan in collaboration with Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) and National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS), Ministry of Population Welfare at a local hotel in Karachi.
The objective of the district-focused PDHS launch was targeted to involve specific groups of society who play vital roles in governance and policy making being the key functionaries to benefiting them from PHDS data, and to empower them for using available information in decision making. It includes district healthcare managers, Nazim, policy makers, legislators and representative of civil society.
High level government officials including Additional Secretary Federal Ministry of Population Welfare and Executive Director NIPS, Provincial Secretaries and Director General Health Services of Health Department and Population Welfare Department from Governments of Sindh and Balochistan. In addition, Executive District Officers (Health), Nazims from twelve district of Sindh and Balochistan provinces, representatives of USAID funded projects including PAIMAN, FALAH, donor agencies, INGOs including Save US, Mercy Corps, research, academic and civil society attended the event.
Speakers of the seminar emphasized on the importance of evidence-based decision making and it’s utility for planning and implementation of health and population programs. The speakers proposed important recommendations that include; high-level policy makers, the decision makers should utilize PDHS findings for planning and effective implementation of health and population interventions; collaborative and coordinated efforts between all stake holders are extremely required to achieve MDGs goals during the next seven years; EDOs Health will take necessary measures in close coordination with Population Welfare Program for improving the service delivery infrastructure to address the unmet needs for family planning; Nazims have to play important role for the improvement of health systems and betterment of health of population in their districts; all communication channels including print and electronic media should be utilized for the dissemination of health and population information and its easy access.