Technical cooperation with countries
Regional desks
Eastern Europe & Central Asian Republics
Capacity-strengthening in operations research
The work of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) in Eastern Europe and the Central Asian Republics is carried out collaboratively with the WHO Regional Office for Europe. This work aims to strengthen in-country programmatic and operational-research capabilities in support of evidence-based policy-setting and programming on regional and country priority issues.
The School of Public Health of the Kaunas University of Medicine, Kaunas, Lithuania is a member of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER). The School was identified by EURO as a potential venue for institutionalizing the regional training course on operations research, with special attention to the needs of Russian-speaking countries. The following steps, agreed with the School during a joint site visit in February 2007, have been successfully implemented.
- Two faculty members chosen to coordinate this initiative took part in an interregional training of trainers workshop (Bangkok, November 2007) to be familiarized with the content of the course and follow-up needs of future trainees. This training was jointly sponsored by RHR and the Population Council FRONTIERS Project.
- Two faculty members chosen to coordinate this initiative took part in an interregional training of trainers workshop (Bangkok, November 2007) to be familiarized with the content of the course and follow-up needs of future trainees. This training was jointly sponsored by RHR and the Population Council FRONTIERS Project.
- The first intercountry workshop, conducted in Russian, was held from 17 to 28 November 2008 and brought together 20 participants from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, and Ukraine. The majority were clinical researchers or programme managers, but their previous experience in operations/health systems research was very limited. Some areas of interest for research included:
- improving quality of perinatal care for mothers and newborns (Azerbaijan, Ukraine);
- improving access to care for rural/poor communities (Kyrgyzstan);
- innovative services for menopausal women (Moldova); and
- information and services for young people (Belarus).
Two major challenges yet to be addressed are the need to establish an effective mechanism for tutoring the trainees in their efforts to finalize their proposals; and the limited capacity to undertake the scientific and ethical review of the proposals in Russian.
Introduction, adaptation, and implementation of WHO evidence-based guidelines and tools at country level
The WHO/UNFPA Strategic Partnership Programme (SPP) is a collaborative programme which aims to improve links between the development of evidence-based guidelines and tools and the implementation of recommendations in programmes and services. More specifically, the SPP aims to support the dissemination, adaptation and adoption by countries of selected practice guides in sexual and reproductive health.
The countries of intensified focus in this region are Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
