UNICEF, United Nations Children Fund in Uzbekistan

Mr. Jean-Michel Delmotte - UNICEF Representative

UNICEF has been working in Uzbekistan since 1994 to advocate for the promotion and protection of children's rights, to help the government to meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF, through its programme of cooperation, works with national government at central and local level, civil society and international development partners.

Under the framework of the CRC, the goal of the current 2005-2009 Country Programme of Cooperation is to support the government to meet its obligations towards children's and women's rights to live, grow up and develop in a nurturing, caring and protective environment. The UNICEF Country Programme is also geared towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on improving nutrition, education, gender equality, maternal health, reducing child mortality, HIV/AIDS and addressing child poverty.

Health and nutrition
Ensuring children's survival and development - in support of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4: reducing child mortality; MDG 5: improving maternal health

Child Survival. UNICEF assists the state in improving the quality of health services for newborns and children at the hospital and primary healthcare (PHC) levels. At the hospital level, all health specialists dealing with delivery and newborn care enhance their skills in diagnosis and appropriate registration of newborns, neonatal resuscitation and essential newborn care. At the primary health care level, the development of a basic package of quality services for children and women has been completed. All PHC professionals are now enhancing their skills to support the delivery of this package.

Immunization. UNICEF is assisting the state in capacity building to improve safe immunization practices and to strengthen the cold chain system. UNICEF also supports the government with procurement of vaccines and self-distracting syringes for immunization.

Nutrition. Since 2005, UNICEF has lead and implemented the communications component of the GAIN fund (through WB) for flour fortification to support all 48 fortified flour production sites countrywide. It contributes to raising awareness and demand for fortified flour in the country. Starting in 2006, UNICEF and the WB have supported the development of a multi-sectoral national nutrition investment programme. The action plan has brought all evidence-based interventions in nutrition as fortification of flour and salt, supplementation programmes and promotion of breast feeding under one framework. Costing was undertaken to develop the programme budget for the next three years. This is coordinated by the cabinet of ministers and ministry of health. Tthe programme is now finalized - the ministry of Health will shortly submit it to the Cabinet of Ministers for endorsement.

Basic education
Providing basic education and ensuring gender equality in support of MDG 2: Educate every child; and MDG 3: Provide equal chances for girls and women.

Policy Level: The Law on Education has been revised and endorsed by the Government. The new School Charter has been developed by the government and provisions for school education are currently being developed. The State Programme on school education development has five components, two of which are supported by UNICEF as part of the Child Friendly School initiative - on curriculum development and capacity building for teachers.

Early Childhood Development: UNICEF is supporting the MoPE in developing Early Learning and School Readiness Standards. Currently UNICEF is assisting the government in the development of a new National policy for preschool education. Nearly 20% of children under-5 attend pre-school. UNICEF also supports the improvement of pre-school preparation for children by encouraging the establishment of non-traditional forms of preschool education.

Child Friendly School (CFS) initiative: Promoting interactive, child-centred, rights and life-skills based teaching and learning. UNICEF is also, building up teachers professional capacities to deliver education using modern interactive methodologies in grades 1-9 for 10 key subjects. The project is being implemented in five pilot regions of the RKK; Khorezm, Ferghana, Tashkent region and Tashkent City. It is covering 725 schools benefiting around 600,000 schoolchildren.

Inclusive education continues to be supported as part of the CFS package through the development of curriculum for children with disabilities. We work with the Ministry of Public Education to integrate 560 disabled children into 200 mainstream schools across 4 regions. Inclusive education has also been included in the revised version of the Law on Education.

Child protection
Protecting children against abuse, exploitation and violence in support of MDG 6: Exploited and abused children are particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases.

UNICEF advocates for legislative reforms in the spheres of child rights and juvenile justice to bring it in compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The law on Guarantees of the Rights of the Child has been endorsed in early 2008. Currently, the whole legislation is going to be revised to ensure its conformity with the CRC.

Promoting restorative justice for children; through providing support tp a team of national experts in drafting a law on juvenile justice that is fully in line with the CRC and other international standards. The law is drafted and will be submitted to the parliament in 2008. Within this project, UNICEF is supporting the pilot of a child court. It involved the capacity building of judges, lawyers and prosecutors to enhance their abilities in managing cases involving young offenders according to international standards.

Capacity building of social workers through in-service and pre-service training; 3 universities already have Social Work Departments. The first group of professional social workers will graduate from these universities in 2008.

Promoting child care reform; with an emphasis on de-institutionalization and the rights of all children to live in a family environment. In two regions, Tashkent and Samarqand, child and family support services were established as pilot projects to support de-institutionalization. The Countries child protection system has also been assessed and policy recommendations developed.

HIV/AIDS prevention and Youth
Combating HIV/AIDS and providing care and services for affected children in support of MDG 6: Fighting infectious diseases.

UNICEF is conducting a five-year "UNITE FOR CHILDREN - UNITE AGAINST AIDS" campaign, raising awareness about the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on children. The five components of the campaign are: the prevention of mother to child transmission; providing protection to HIV&AIDS infected children; care and support of vulnerable children; supporting prevention programmes among young children and paediatric treatment.

In order to achieve the objectives, UNICEF focuses on:
● Peer-to-peer education and outreach work; which addresses the most at risk adolescents (MARA) and young people through a behavioural change communication strategy.
● Youth friendly health services (YFHS) for HIV/AIDS; these primarily address Most-At-Risk-Adolescents for HIV prevention, care, support and treatment; the Youth Friendly Health Services Standards were adopted by the Government of Uzbekistan based on piloting results in Ferghana region and Tashkent City and will be scaled up to one more region in 2008. Mayors of pilot areas adopted "Policies on HIV Prevention", which provided an enabling environment to bring together key gate-keepers and MARA, while the Health Department adopted a Decree authorising the use of a Unique Identification Code system in referring MARA to specialized services.
● Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) through building the capacity of health service providers in the five most effected regions of the country. The main focus is on integration of PMTCT into perinatal systems.
● The Government has adopted a National Strategy to combat HIV/AIDS for 2007-2011. UNICEF has supported the development of an overall communication strategy, by including prevention components for young people.

Early childhood development / Family education
The family education programme aims at increasing the knowledge of parents in child rearing practices, so all children receive adequate nutrition, access to quality education and can grow up in safe and,supportive communities. It also works for community empowerment and capacity building of local authorities to assist families in better caring for their children.

UNICEF is enhancing early childhood development through Uzbekistan's traditional local community structures: the makhalla's. These communities are taking on an increasing responsibility for community development and social assistance, particularly for pre-school services. Makhalla initiative groups focus on the survival and protection of newborns and women by promoting access to safe immunization services, encouraging breastfeeding, good nutrition and better parenting skills.

Local planning capacity building
This project complements sectoral capacity building programmes by developing the capacities of local administrations and public sector managers. It aims at improving the management, planning and monitoring skills of local administrators. Currently, UNICEF is working with the Academy of State and Social Construction, which offers postgraduate courses for different levels of the state authorities. With Academy staff, a special course has ben developed and introduced into the Academies existing training programmes. The course focuses on issues such as Results Based Management, Monitoring & Evaluation and the CRC. So far the training has covered deputy governors (Khokims)and sectoral authorities in nine regions of the country.

Disaster risk reduction
Since 2007, the Ministry of Emergency and UNICEF are jointly implementing the disaster preparedness and risk reduction programme. The programme is supported by the EU/DIPECHO, and aims at risk reduction among vulnerable communities, especially children and women, in disaster prone areas of Uzbekistan. 

Main partners:

• Cabinet of Ministers;
• Ministry of Health;
• Ministry of public education;
• Ministry of justice;
• Women's committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• Supreme court;
• Prosecutor General Office;
• Academy of state and social construction;
• Khokimiyat (city administration)
• Institute of pediatry; 
• Scientific research institute of haematology and blood transfusion; 
• Scientific research institute of endocrinology; Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute; 
• Institute of teachers training; Institute of pre-school education specialists training; 
• Institute of culture.
• Republican perinatal centre;
• Republican centre of education; 
• Republican centre on social adaptation of children; 
• Republican AIDS centre; 
• Centre of reproductive health "Tarikat"; 
• Centre for studies on human rights and humanitarian law
• National association of NGOs;
• NGO "Farzandim-jigarbandim"; 
• "You are not alone" foundation;
• Bar association of Tashkent city; 
• NGO "Salomatlik plus ecologia"; 
• Uzbek children fund/Young generation council;
• "Yangi Avlod" children media club; Mass media.

Contact information:
UNICEF
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
43, Istiklol Street
Phone: (998-71) 2339512, 2339735
Fax: (998-71) 1206508

Website: www.unicef.org/uzbekistan