WRITTEN QUESTION E-0954/97 by Glenys Kinnock (PSE) to the Commission (13 March 1997)

Subject: Evaluation of budget line B7-6212 (maternal and child health care)

In answer to a parliamentary question (E-1511/96 ((OJ C 365, 4.12.1996, p. 7. )) on the administration of budget line B7-6212, Mr Pinheiro said that the Commission planned in 1996 to spend ECU 0.5 million on a study and evaluation of the pilot projects financed under B7-6212 in 1994 'with the aim of deriving guidelines and avenues of approach for the formulation of innovative schemes in this sector'.

Can the Commission now make known the results of this study, and provide full information on these guidelines?

Answer given by Mr Pinheiro on behalf of the Commission (24 April 1997)

In 1996, a review of the use of the mother and child (MCH) budget line No B7-6212 was organised in order to:

- assess the relevance of the MCH budget line for encouraging innovative approaches to mother and child and reproductive health issues in developing countries while taking into account the financial instruments already available for Community support in those areas;

- assess the extent to which the projects funded under the 1994 MCH budget line achieved those objectives;

- make recommendations to the Commission on the further use of the MCH budget line in relation to complementarity with the other instruments.

The main findings of the review are that:

- the budget line allows the Community to make an important contribution to improving mother and child health and reproductive health in developing countries, more specifically improving the quality and quantity of the contributions given within the health sector support through the development of improved policies, strategies and services;

- because of the difficulties with project design, the lack of technical quality and appraisal of submitted proposals and the lack of administrative resources there were serious delays to budget funding for the projects in 1994;

- concerning specific projects financed from the 1994 budget line, it was concluded that two projects did not warrant further support beyond the existing commitment but two other projects were estimated to be satisfactory and valuable enough to merit further support in the future;

- the Commission had the technical capability to manage the budget line and realise its objectives but it did not have the capacity in terms of staff to manage the budget line's objectives.

The main recommendations of the report were to merge the demography and the MCH budget line in order to decrease duplication and to use the budget line instrument more to contribute to the development of innovative approaches in the reproductive health context while financing large scale operations through the regular instruments available for the countries and the regions.

The proposals made have partially already been implemented through the merging of the demography and the MCH budget line for the year 1997. A shared management has been set up inside the Commission and it is accepted that for the year 1997 the Commission will be committing approximately 2 Mecu to support projects in the spirit of the recommendation to develop and strengthen innovative approaches in order for mother and child health and reproductive health to be better taken into account in the indicative programmes of the countries. Work continues on technical guidance and prioritisation of resource allocation.