20 December 2010 – Regional IMCI Coordinators’ Meeting, Sana’a, Yemen, 6–9 December 2010

The meeting convened 59 participants―child health programme managers, senior decision-makers, academics―from 19 of the 22 countries in the Region, UNICEF country offices, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and WHO. It aimed at updating countries on progress in child health and developmental work in the Region. Five countries are close to achieving IMCI universal coverage, while progress in other countries is slow and likely to require many more years at the current rate of implementation. A 30% reduction in under-five mortality is estimated to have occurred in the Region between 1990 and 2009, against the 2015 MDG 4 of 66%. Three countries, notably Egypt, Lebanon and Oman, have already surpassed this goal, five countries are on track while the rest are not on track and needs to intensify efforts substantially. A regional web-based information tool for countries to update IMCI implementation data by level and the child health country profile to present in one document key child health indicators were presented. Experiences were shared on initiatives to increase access to quality child care such as the community health worker-based initiative and integrated outreach activities carried out in Yemen. The newly developed regional IMCI pre-service education package―to be posted on this web site soon―was presented in the meeting, aiming to assist teaching institutions in incorporating IMCI into their teaching programmes and evaluating them. The Sudan IMCI pre-service education experience was also shared together with the results of its evaluation. Plans to move forward the child health agenda were prepared by country teams. The report will be available in due course and posted on this web site.