There is urgency to improve understanding, for the public as well for policy makers, on meaningful improvement in maternal, new born and child health status all of which are largely dependent upon successful family planning and a higher literacy level among women in the country, said experts on Tuesday. Senior Child Specialist Prof. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutta, Senior Gynecologist Dr Sadiqua N Jaffery, Dr Farid Midhet and Public Health Expert Dr Nabila Ali were the key speakers at the advocacy workshop on Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (RMNCH) organised by Aga Khan University’s Division of Women and Child Health in collaboration with Sindh MNCH Program and USAID.
The deliberations on the occasion, which were also actively supplemented by senior health department officials from Sindh, including Special Secretary for Health Dr Suresh Kumar, Additional Secretary for Health Kiran Nauman, DG-Health Dr Firoze Memon, Additional Secretary for Sindh Population Welfare Syed Ashfaq Ali Shah and Sindh Program Director for MNCH Dr Sahab Jan Badar, extensively reviewed numerous vertical healthcare programs for women and children in Sindh. Positive and negative aspects of these programs were also highlighted with the suggestion to adopt an integrated program so as to make these programs more effective, transparent and pragmatic.
