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Welcome to Cluster 2 - Health section of the UN Iraq Web Portal.

The purpose of this section is to provide information on activities related to Health, undertaken by the United Nations and its partners. 

General information on the Cluster

Overview and Challenges

The national longer term challenge for the UN Health Cluster for Iraq is to provide support to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to develop “an accessible, affordable, available, safe and comprehensive quality health service of the highest possible standard that is financially sound and founded on scientific principles in order to meet the present and future health needs of Iraqi people regardless of their ethnicity, geographic origin, gender or religious affiliation.

 The Health Cluster works closely with the MoH in the development of proposals, in the conducting of situation analyses and engaging in all activities. Moreover the Health Cluster works to provide a unified approach and support to the Ministry, ensuring that priority setting is wholly consistent with the MoH strategy. 

From January – September 2004, the UN Health Cluster has supported the MoH with circa US$ 65 million worth of soft and hardware activities and is looking forward to increased implementation rates in the future.

Ongoing Health Cluster Activities:

At a policy level, the Health Cluster continues to provide technical and logistical support to the MoH, through the development of: (1) the national strategic plan for the MoH, based on recommendations from various national workshops including the needs assessment / priority setting workshop; (2) the nursing and midwifery strategic plan; (3) the disease surveillance strategic plan; (4) the tuberculosis strategic plan; (5) the wheat flour fortification plan; (6) the short term medicine policy and pharmaceutical plan; (7) the health situation analysis; (8) the food safety strategy and plan of action; and (9) the review of the iodine deficiency disorders programme and planning for a national micronutrient survey.

During 2004 in the area of human resource development, almost 1,600 health professionals at different levels have been trained and currently preparations are underway for continued education activities.

Other activities undertaken by the Health Cluster include the rehabilitation of Nutrition Research Institute (ongoing) and the Public Health Laboratories in Baghdad, Najaf and Mosul as well as the refurbishment of the laboratory in Basra (ongoing) funded by ECHO. The rehabilitation of four nursing training centres in Baghdad, Suleimaniyah, Kerbala and Basra funded by EC / UNDP TF is being undertaken. With the EC / UNDP TF funds the Cluster has supported the MoH during the implementation of the first round of Polio eradication campaigns in September 2004 and preparation for the 2nd round in October 2004: 96% of the 4.6 million children below five were vaccinated by house-to-house visits against Polio. Moreover, during the measles campaign in March, 97% of the 5.2 million children aged 6 – 12 were vaccinated by school-to-school and house-to-house visits using MMR vaccine. The Health Cluster also provided emergency support to the MoH in the area of drug and medical supply procurement – almost US$ 7 million – including the rapid response to needs in conflict areas such as Falluja, Najaf and Sadr City, upon the request of the MoH. Nineteen PHC units are currently under construction with an additional five to be rehabilitated before the end of the year. High protein biscuits continue to be delivered weekly into Iraq, with 2,500 tonnes having been delivered into Iraq in the past six months.

UNDG Iraq Trust Fund Projects

1- Supporting the Primary Health Care System: the implementation approach consists of: direct support to the MoH office with three professional personnel, MoH multi-disciplinary executive committee and task force established. Following this support, the following has been initiated: the functional rehabilitation of PHC facilities in 19 districts started, policy review workshops, strategies and plan of action formulation; support to PHC services (MCH, safe drugs, safe food), human resource development policy (training activities for circa 943 professional under preparation) and prevention of communicable diseases (malaria and leishmaniasis spraying). To further develop the human resource of the health system, the following rehabilitation programmes have been initiated: 10 nursing training centres (five MoH, five Ministry of Higher Education-MoHE); 18 continuing education centres; 19 PHC training centres and 25 continuing education centres at teaching hospitals (20 MoH, 5 MoHE).

2- Emergency Obstetric Care: the contracts for the renovation of 21 wards in the maternity hospitals are to be signed by the end of September 2004. Support to referral system and emergency services, with the procurement of ambulances being initiated.

3- National Drug Quality Control Laboratory: during the month of September 2004 a meeting was held in Amman where a policy review was undertaken; procurements of the laboratory equipment and reagents with a value of US$ 2.5million were initiated and training plans completed.

4- Mental Health and Non-Communicable Diseases: a national mental health and non-communicable disease strategy workshop was held and the procurement of US $ 4 million  worth of drugs and supplies.

Partners of the Health Cluster

The Health Cluster consists of WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, UNIDO, IOM, UNOPS. It works in close collaboration with the World Bank. The Cluster works closely with line ministries: MoH (as the driving force), Ministry of the Education (MoHE), Ministry of Environment, and Ministry of Planning and Development; national and international NGOs; other UN Clusters – Water and Sanitation, Education and Culture and IDP, neighbouring Countries in the region; regional and global parent organisation.

Cluster Manager:Dr. Naeema Al-Gasseer
E-mail address:  algasseern@emro.who.int 

Deputy Cluster Manager:  Alexander Malyavin
Email address: amalyavin@unicef.org

Documents
Library of Health related information - containing repots, assessments and related information.

Health Sector Coordination Meetings Minutes

Cluster 2 Meeting Minutes (118 KB  doc format)

Cluster 2 Meeting Minutes (30.5 KB  doc format)

Note!  Questions / suggestions concerning the content of this section can be directed to the UNAMI Office in Amman through the feedback form
 

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