![]() |
In Asia and the Pacific, UNFPA has structured its goals under its 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, to ensure the achievement of three outcomes (“Three Transformative Results”): ending preventable maternal mortality, unmet need for family planning, and gender-based violence and harmful practices. At the core of UNFPA activities is the need to improve the provision of high-quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and ensure the realization of reproductive rights for all.
While this is not the only limiting factor; geographic accessibility is associated with improved maternal and newborn health outcomes; thus, understanding spatial inequalities in access is critical to improve maternal and newborn health. To further reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, it is essential to improve geographic accessibility to life-saving services.
For this reason, geography is an integral part of UNFPA’s implementation manual for developing a national network of maternity units[1]. Released in 2020, this manual helps countries with high burden of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity to develop their national network of referral maternity facilities based on an innovative approach that includes the use of geospatial data and technologies.
In 2021, the Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) directive released a policy paper outlining new coverage targets and milestones for 2025, with the goal of accelerating progress towards the 2030 SDGs and reducing the global maternal mortality rate to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. To achieve these ambitious targets, EPMM has launched five new coverage targets for 2025, one of which, Target 4, reflects the proportion of the population with access to a functioning Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) facility within 2 hours travel time. Measuring this indicator requires countries to use GIS-based methods and tools, in addition to assessing the functionality and availability of EmONC services.
In view of the above, UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Office in collaboration with the Health GeoLab of Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) has organized a virtual regional workshop to introduce the geographic dimension of the above as well as the concept and process behind the sustainable use of geospatial data and technologies to improve geographic access to emergency obstetric and newborn care.
The objective of the webinar series were to:
- Demonstrate the potential of geospatial data and technologies in public health
- Introduce the HIS geo-enabling framework and its implementation in countries
- Transfer knowledge, expertise and resources that will allow participants to implement the HIS geo-enabling framework in their respective country
The expectation for this webinar series is for the participants to have a better understanding on how geospatial data and technologies can be used in a sustainable way to improve geographic access to emergency obstetric and newborn care and what is needed to operationalize the geographic dimension of UNFPA’s implementation manual for developing a national network of maternity units as well as measure EPMM target 4.
[1] https://www.unfpa.org/featured-publication/implementation-manual-developing-national-network-maternity-units
Training workshop agenda: Download link
Module |
Sessions |
Slides |
Recording |
1 |
Session 1: UNFPA’s implementation manual for developing a national network of maternity units and Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) Session 2: The geographic dimension of Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) Session 3: Examples of application of geospatial data and technologies to support geographic access to EmoNC services |
Slides module 1 | |
2 |
Session 4: How to operationalize UNFPA’s implementation manual and measure EPMM target 4 Session 5: Input data and parameters Session 6: Software, hardware and technical expertise |
Slides module 2 | Recording module 2 |
3 |
Session 7: Introduction to the HIS geo-enablement framework Session 8: In country implementation of the HIS geo-enablement framework Session 9: Result of the HIS geo-enablement level assessment for Asia and Pacific |
Slides module 3 |