Evaluation of UNICEF’s Contribution in Central and Eastern European Five Countries

Curatio International Foundation conducted an evaluation of UNICEF’s contribution to the reduction of under 5 mortality in five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia, and Uzbekistan. The evaluation covered 12 years from 2000 – 2012 and was performed in 2014-2015.

UNICEF’s Regional Office for the CEE/CIS commissioned this Multi-Country Evaluation, as one of a series of such exercises, to a) document progress in reducing under-5 and infant mortality and morbidity and to generate lessons on how this was accomplished; b) inform programs aimed at scaling-up evidence-based and equity-focused interventions; and c) enable better partnering with national governments to advance the child health and rights agenda.

The evaluation was based on a Theory of Change to reduce and close the equity gap in under-5 and infant mortality and morbidity in the CEE/CIS and applied both UNICEF MoRES framework and the WHO essential health system functions approach.

Evaluation findings are assembled across the following key areas: Impact on the health status of children; Equity; Relevance; System-level changes; UNICEF’s contribution; Sustainability

The study found a reduction in infant and under-5 mortality and morbidity over the evaluation period, although equity gaps exist in different geographical, gender and socio-economic groups. The evaluation concluded that UNICEF-supported programmers addressed the most important causes of infant and under-5 morbidity and mortality and were mostly successful in identifying and applying the right interventions to address the health system bottlenecks.

Key Recommendations

The evaluation recommended to sharpen equity-focus of programming, consider not sufficiently addressed underlying causes of child mortality and morbidity and addressing persisting bottlenecks at health system and community levels.

To learn more, download full evaluation report.

 

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