02 December 2019 13:24

Presentation ceremony of pilot project results on “SMS Campaign of Maternal and Child Health” held in Baku

On December 2, 2019, the State Agency on Mandatory Health Insurance (Agency) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) jointly organized the ceremony dedicated to the pilot project outcome on SMS Campaign of Maternal and Child Health. The event was attended by representatives of UNICEF, Agency, Ministry of Transportation, Communications and High Technologies (Ministry), Mingachevir City Central Hospital, relevant state and non-state entities, as well as media.

In his opening speech the UNICEF Azerbaijan's Representative, Edward Carwardine stated: “As a United Nations Children's Fund, we believe that it is very important to move forward with innovations in the ever-evolving world of information and communications technology and by means of new approaches delivering life-saving information and expanding access to critical services is one of the priority issues. Therefore, we are very pleased with the partnership of Agency, Ministry and mobile operators that came together to deliver critical information on health care to pregnant women.”

The Chairman of the Board of Agency Zaur Aliyev spoke about reforms carried out in the country for protection of maternal and child health. He underlined that protection of child health has been one of the important issues for Agency. He also noted that pilot project on SMS campaign led to positive changes in knowledge, habits and behavior of mothers and pregnant women, as well as improved mutual relations with healthcare staff. 

Afterwards, video screening took place featuring opinions of project coordinators and impressions of pregnant women who benefits from the project. The project coordinator, IT specialist at UNICEF Azerbaijan, Rustam Jabbarov presented the results of the first phase of the project. He also gave comprehensive information about establishing the registration system at Family Health Centers in the city of Mingachevir and activities implemented for the purpose of monitoring service quality. He said that one of the goals of the project is testing the impact of text messaging as a learning tool. Therefore, telephone survey was conducted among 273 subscribers between October and November to identify the changes in the knowledge and habits of pregnant women who received text messages. The survey revealed that 62% of respondents remember at least one of the received messages. After receiving text messages change in their habit and behavior made up 30.8%. The topics the pregnant women remembered most were breastfeeding, caesarean section and check-up weeks.

The presentations were followed by panel discussions. During panel discussions Rustam Jabbarov, Aynura Rashidova officer-in-charge of the Agency and Zakir Gasimov, Senior Adviser of the Division for Regulation of Communications of the Ministry delivered speeches and answered the questions of participants.  Z.Gasimov said that as a result of coordination by the Ministry the leading mobile operators in the country supported this project as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programs by assuming all costs of messaging.

At the end of the event discussions included implementation of this project in other regions of the country where mandatory health insurance will be applied next year and continuation of cooperation with the leading mobile operators in this regard. It’s necessary to note that pilot project on SMS Campaign is being implemented in accordance with Memorandum of Understanding signed between UNICEF and Agency. The first phase of the project will be completed at the end of this year. As part of the project SMS package consisting of 61 messages were sent to more than 524 pregnant women who had been registered at Family Health Centers of Mingachevir city and gave consent to receive text messages. The text messages included the importance of having necessary check-ups in the gestation period, maintaining proper diet, fetal development by weeks and trimesters, as well as breastfeeding after childbirth.The specialists of Republican Perinatal Centre, UNICEF and SMS Service participated in the formulating the content of text messages.

The project will be completed in April of 2020.