Essential health and nutrition Services Provision for IDPs and conflict-affected populations in Northern Shan The “ESPI” project will deliver critical health and nutrition services to vulnerable people living in conflict areas of Northern Shan. Target populations include people living in conflict-affected areas, communities with histories of multiple displacements, communities receiving IDPs, and the people with poor access to health services. Since 1998, CPI has been promoting access to primary health services in conflict-affected areas in South East Myanmar and believes that empowering local organizations is the most effective way to address the health needs of displaced populations. CPI designed the ESPI project in partnership with Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT) and Ta’ang Health Committee (THC) for the emergency response to conflict-affected victims in 7 Townships in Northern Shan with following objectives: Increase access to integrated health care services at emergency setting through locally attainable service providers, Strengthen the capacity and quality of services by capacitating indigenous organizations. Objective 1: Increase access to integrated health care services in emergency settings: The ESPI project will implement the “Integrated Package of Health Services” (IPHS) encompassing expanded health and nutrition programs in partnership with BPHWT and THC through mobile approach for IDPs and facility-based approach at conflict-affected villages. To align with MOHS guidelines, training curriculums have been developed as IPHS in accordance with national guidelines, under the guidance of the respective clusters. The main thematic areas under IPHS include Health and Nutrition services such as primary health care, maternal and new born child health, sexual and reproductive health, growth monitoring, infant and young child feeding counseling (IYCF), active case finding, other nutrition specific-activities such as deworming, Vit A and B1 supplementation, emergency referral, mhGAP for general practioner and psychological first aid, and disease surveillance activity. BPHWT will operate with 2 mobile teams with 6 clinic health workers covering all IDPs population from 2 IDP camps in Hseni and Hsipaw Township. THC will operate in 5 townships (Lashio, Mantong, Kutkai, Tangyan, Namsan) covering 24922 conflicted affected community (59.2% or 14767 are women and under 5 children) through their 5 clinics located in these townships. Moreover, regular mobile visit will be done to 7 IDP camps located in Kutkai and Namsan Townships delivering emergency IPHS services to 2276 IDPs (57 % are women and children under 5-year). With technical support from WHO, CPI will help both partners to set up a communicable disease surveillance system which is to align with MoHS EWARS in due course.
Objective 2: Strengthening the capacity and quality of services by capacitating indigenous organizations. CPI will provide technical assistance to BPHWT and THC staff in the following thematic areas. 1) Healthcare Provider Capacity Building: ESPI project will conduct initial IPHS training for 6 clinic health workers from BPHWT and 20 from THC. Then multiplier training can be given to community volunteers focusing on basic health and nutrition knowledge for raising community awareness. A community volunteer will be assigned for every village tract in THC coverage area. Since CPI has actively engaged with Health and Nutrition Clusters, good relation with MoHS, it is auspicious to seek technical assistance from these stakeholders whenever necessary. Likewise, CPI will do joint monitoring visits to EHO clinics together with MoHS or cluster lead, thus ensuring EHO technical and workforce alignment with national standards. 2) CPI will train partner staff according to national guidelines and CPI will organize regular on-site training and monitoring visits with partners. CPI will also strengthen collaboration between partners and the MOHS, through routine cluster coordination meetings at the state level, Township Coordination Meetings, and joint mobile outreach.