Meeting Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the Urban Health Working Group

  News   Mar 5, 2023   891  Add to Reading List
Meeting Minutes of the Virtual Meeting of the Urban Health Working Group

The second meeting of the Urban Health Working Group (UbHWG) took place virtually on January 29, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. Mr. Mustakim Billah Faruqui, Additional Secretary (Urban Development), Local Government Division (UGD) of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives (MOLGRDC), and Mr. Md. Jahangir Hossain, Additional Secretary (Planning), Health Services Division (HSD) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), co-chaired the meeting .

Presentation

Mr. Md. Jahangir Hossain, Additional Secretary for Planning and Co-Chair of the Committee, opened the meeting by extending a warm greeting to all attendees. After the participants introduced themselves, he stated that the Urban Health Working Group (UbHWG) was formed on 21 June 2015 and held its first meeting on 16 October 2019. The UbHWG was subsequently reconstituted on 22 September 2022 in order to increase cooperation between the MOHFW, LGD, and Local Government institutions (LGls) regarding urban primary health care services.

This is the first meeting of the urban Health Working Group since its reconstitution. According to the Terms of Reference (TOR), the committee is required to meet on a quarterly basis. He stated that this committee would hold regular meetings in the future. Subsequently, he asked the Deputy Secretary (Health-1) of the Health Services Division and Member-Secretary of the committee to post the meeting's agenda.

Deputy secretary (Health-1), HSD informed that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) offered budget support to the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) for Covid-19 response under a program entitled "Responsive, Inclusive, and Effective Social Development for Strengthening Social Resilience." The credit amount (500 U.S. dollars) is being disbursed based on the achievement of many indicators by numerous ministries/divisions, including MoHFW. Under sub-program-1 of the aforementioned ADB program, the HSD must accomplish two milestones: (a) National Urban Health Strategy (NUHS) approval by MOHFW; and (b) NUHS implementation. The milestone (a) has been reached, as the National Urban Health Strategy 2020 has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, according to the Deputy Secretary. HSD has already recreated the Urban Health Coordination Committee (UHCC) and Urban Health Working per milestone (b). She said that the restored UHCC convened its first meeting in December 2021.

Discussion

Agenda-I: Progress of the decisions of the 1st Urban Health Working Group meeting.

The HSD deputy secretary (Health-1) reported on the status of the first meeting's decisions. She stated that HSD contracted a TA Team to draft the Urban Health Strategy (NUHS) 2020 with clear delineation of MOHFW and MoLGRDC's roles and responsibilities. MOHFW has approved the NUHS 2020 after considerable consultation. The NUHS includes a Joint Action Plan that clearly delineates the roles and responsibilities of MoHFW and MoLGRDC in order to better coordination of primary health care in urban areas. Hence, she asserted that the first three resolutions of the Urban Health Working Group's first meeting have been met. About the progress of decision no 4, the Project Director of the UPHCSDP will communicate with the key actors and DPs, such as the EU, UNFPA, and USAID, to map who is doing what on the urban health information system and what can be done for data capture in DHIS2. She requested that the Project Director of UHPCSDP provide an update at the next UbHWG meeting, where a report would be presented.

Project Director of UPHCSD reported that consultation with the relevant players on data capture in DHIS2 has not yet occurred; nevertheless, consultation with the relevant actors, including DPs currently working on urban primary health care, occurs on a regular basis. Now, EPI, Nutrition, and Covid Vaccine-related data are routinely uploaded to DHIS2, he reported. Further data pertaining to urban primary health care are being submitted to the UPHCSD Project software.

A representative of FCDO disclosed that UPHCSDP has sophisticated software that captures all forms of urban primary health care-related data on a regular basis, however the vast majority of this data are not transmitted to DHIS2. In order to create access to available data, he proposed interconnecting these two softwares so that data from the UPHCSDP software could be automatically sent to DHIS2. In addition, he advocated adding an Urdan Health link to DHIS2 so that urban health-related data can be recorded.

A UNICEF representative reported that 95% of UPHCSDP data pertaining to urban primary healthcare have been uploaded to DHIS2. To see the actual national scenario of urban primary health care service delivery, however, 100% of data must be collected.

The Assistant Secretary (Urban Development), LGD, and Co-Chair of the meeting stated that all sorts of data pertaining to urban primary health care must be recorded in the DHIS2 in order to assist policymakers in making the best decisions to enhance the services. He requested that the Project Director of UPHCSDP take action in this regard and provide an update at the next meeting.

Additional Secretary (planning), HSD, and Co-Chair of the meeting remarked that the Project Director of UPHCSDP can hold a short meeting with the relevant players, including relevant DPs, to discuss and choose a method for uploading all urban health-related data to DHIS2. The Director (MIS) of DGHS is responsible for the DHIS2 software, but he is not a member of the Urban Health Working Group, he added. He suggested that the Director (MIS) of the DGHS be invited to join this group. All committee members were in agreement over the topic.

ME&FWD's Joint Secretary (Planning) remarked that the DGFP has a MIS in which MCH-based family planning data is gathered. A Director has been appointed to oversee the MIS. He offered to appoint the Director (MIS) of the DGFP to this committee.

A representative of the UNICEF Nutrition department stated that the DGHS is implementing the National Nutrition Services (NNS) OP and that a Line Director is responsible for its implementation. She suggested co-opting LD and NNS into this committee.

Assistant secretary (Planning), HSD, and co-chair of UbHWG stated that those who could not be co-opted would be invited to pertinent meetings by special invitation. All committee members were in agreement over the topic.

Agenda-2: Implementation of the Joint Action Plan of NUHS 2020

The Deputy Secretary (Health-3) of HSD reported that the National Urban Health Strategy 2020, which includes a Joint Action Plan, was established by the Health Services Division after wide consultation and was approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The Joint Action Plan includes 37 measures that are to be carried out by MoHFW and MOLGRDC. She then requested that the committee debate and review the status of the Joint Action Plan's activities.

At this time, the Additional Secretary (Urban development), HGD, and Committee Co-Chair noted that neither the National Urban Strategy 2020 nor the Joint Action Plan were available at the Division. In his opinion, the NUHS2020 and the Joint Action Plan should be redistributed in order to implement the Action Plan.

The Assistant Secretary (Planning) and Co-Chair of the committee stated that the NUHS 2020 is likely to be released in the near future. Then, it would be distributed to all relevant stakeholders, including committee members.

Mr. M. M. Reza, Consultant at the World Bank, stated that the Local Government Division has been conducting the Urban Primary Health Care Service Delivery Project with support from the Asian Development Bank for almost 23 years. NGO's have been providing urban residents with primary health care services for a long time. LGD has not yet established a stable structure for the provision of urban primary health care in City Corporations and Municipalities. He requested that the co-chairs increase partnership on the delivery of urban primary health care services.

Decision:

  • The Project Director of UPHCSDP would convene a small conference with the necessary stakeholders, including DPs, to design a method for uploading all UPHC-related data into DHIS2;
  • The meeting elected the Director (MIS) of the DGHS and the Director (MIS) of the DGFP to the Urban Health Working Group;
  • The Planning Wing of the Health Services Division would redistribute the National Urban Health Strategy 2020 and the Joint Action Plan to all relevant parties, including UbHWG members.
  • The next meeting will examine and evaluate the progress of the Joint Action Plan of NUIIS 2020 activities.