Georgetown: UNICEF’s Resident Coordinator, Marianne Flach: “For Guyana to continue making progress as a lower-middle income country, sound information on child rights indicators is crucial for formulating and revising national and sub-national policies…”
UNICEF’s Resident Coordinator, Marianne Flach: “For Guyana to continue making progress as a lower-middle income country, sound information on child rights indicators is crucial for formulating and revising national and sub-national policies…”
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), which got underway in April of this year, is set to be completed by August month-end, says United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Resident Coordinator Marianne Flach.
According to Flach, the MICS is a household survey developed by UNICEF to improve the lives of children in response to the World Summit for Children, which was held in 1990 to measure progress towards an internationally agreed set of goals regarding children.
Since the inception of MICS, four survey rounds have been completed (1995, 2000 and 2005-6 and 2009-10). The first round of MICS was conducted around 1995, and though Guyana did not participate, it was one of the 65 countries involved in the second round of global surveys conducted in 2000, and participated again in 2006. This has given the country, its decision-makers and donors, quality data that has started to map out development trends for the country.
While significant progress has been made in reducing under-five mortality through better vaccination coverage and management of childhood illnesses, neonatal mortality remains a critical issue.
Too many children still die from preventable causes within the first month of life. MICS is expected to provide the data needed to identify these trends and plan effectively to address them.
The Resident Coordinator noted that the MICS is an important monitoring tool for assessing the well-being of children, women, and their families, stating: “For Guyana to continue making progress as a lower-middle income country, sound information on child rights indicators is crucial for formulating and revising national and sub-national policies, and for monitoring to ensure the country’s progress toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other global commitments aimed at promoting the welfare of children. Gaps in data often impede Guyana’s efforts to formulate effective policies and programmes and can present a challenge when channelling the country’s limited resources to those most in need.”
Guyana is poised to address the current data through the MICS.
For children, this means that critical areas which need to be addressed can be identified and measures put in place to ensure that they are protected, have better access to quality healthcare and education, and make better life choices so that they will have a sustainable future as they grow into adults.
The survey was taken to all 10 administrative regions in Guyana and targeted an estimated 6000 households.
