UZBEKISTAN: COMMENTS ON UNFPA PROGRAM

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000727 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/PIM B. GLENN GRIFFIN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM SOCI EAID UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: COMMENTS ON UNFPA PROGRAM REF: STATE 44174 ¶1. (U) Per request in reftel, post has reviewed the draft UN Population Fund country program for Uzbekistan and has the following suggestions: --The Uzbekistan Reproductive Health Association should be a key partner in the NGO sector. --The term "nurses" should be replaced with "nurses and/or midwives" in most instances. --As an outcome indicator, Maternal Mortality Ratio will not be useful until severe underreporting of maternal mortality is corrected; this will take longer than the six-year project horizon. --As an output indicator, Caesarian Section Rate is expected to change from six percent to 5-15 percent, reflecting the fact that the procedure can be overused or underused or both. Simply measuring the change will not indicate whether the procedure is being used more appropriately. --As an output indicator, "percentage of young people aged 10-24 with comprehensive knowledge on preventing HIV," is not well-correlated with increased condom use (a key outcome indicator). --A new censorship committee in Uzbekistan forbids the use of the terms "condom" or "sex," and mandates the term "modern methods of contraception" in any public informational materials. This is important because whereas condoms offer protection against sexually transmitted diseases, other such contraception methods such as the birth control pill do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases. This could result in misleading information being disseminated to the public. NORLAND