February 14, 2019
Excellency Member of Parliament, Member of Cabinet and Minister of Health, Ms. D. Sarangerel,
Excellency Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Policy, Education, Culture and Sciences, Mr Ganbold
Honourable Health Advisor to the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Mr Khurelbaatar
Excellency Vice Minister of Health, Dr. L. Byambasuren,
Directors of Health Departments and Hospitals from Ulaanbaatar and aimags,
Representatives of the UN agencies, ADB and WB,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me start by wishing all of you happiness, prosperity and longevity in the year of the Pig. The 25th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and 50th birthday of the United Nations Population Fund make this year a very special for all of us.
On the occasion of these historical milestones, I would like to congratulate Mongolia’s Ministry of Health for approving an unprecedented 1.8 billion tugrugs for the procurement of family planning commodities in 2019, which is a 12-times increase from the level of 2018. It truly demonstrates the Mongolian Government’s commitment to enable 220,000 adolescents and youth from low income families to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health as a matter of fundamental human rights to be able to decide freely and responsibly on number, spacing and timing of pregnancies and childbirth.
The approved budget of 1.8 billion tugrugs is within the primary health care package, and Ulaanbaatar and aimag Health Departments will manage an entire process of supply chain management, including procurement of contraceptives, by themselves. Not that long ago UNFPA supplied the country’s entire need for oxytocin. However, starting from 2014 the health facilities have fully overtaken and managed an uninterrupted supply of life saving maternal medicines. Same has to happen with the IUDs, contraceptives pills, injectable and implants, and condoms, which all are essential medicines and equipment.
In this connection, UNFPA is looking forward to partnering with the Ministry of Health, and Ulaanbaatar and aimag Health Departments in the following areas throughout 2019:
- UNFPA is committed to provide technical assistance in implementing the logistics management of contraceptives, including forecasting requirements for different methods, managing stocks, and distributing and maintaining the logistics management information system.
- To ensure a full implementation of the joint UNFPA and the Government of Mongolia’s 6th Country Programme through removing institutional barriers, UNFPA will work on strengthening the adolescent and youth friendly services at 11 sites in the capital city and the aimags to make sure that youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services are accessible and available to the future generation of the Mongolians.
- To support the health sector’s effort in eliminating preventable maternal deaths, UNFPA will complete establishing 22 Emergency Obstetric Care Drilling Stations in all the aimags and the Amagalan maternity home and setting up simulation training centers at the National Center for Maternal and Child Health and the School of Nursing. The procurement process has taken longer than we expected. However, UNFPA is looking forward to handing over training manikins and instruments worth of 1.1 million USD to the Ministry of Health by mid-April, as mentioned by her Excellency, the Minister.
- UNFPA will work with the MOH on the strengthening a health response to gender-based violence as part of a multi-sectoral response, for which we have allocated more than 200 million MNT in 2019. This will help Mongolia to upgrade the health services to survivors of domestic violence according to the internationally agreed standards.
Lastly, UNFPA will continue working with all partners on promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights for the most vulnerable population groups, including young people and women and girls with disabilities.
I’m looking forward to another very fruitful year ahead!
Thank you!
