The Government of Tajikistan hasidentified improving maternal and child health (MCH) as keypriorities in its new Health Sector Strategy for 2010-2020.The Government recognizes that improving MCH outcomes iscritical to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG)for maternal and child health over the next four years.Tajikistan's data on most of the MDG indicators formaternal and child health can be improved significantly. TheGovernment's ability to track its progress and to takeaction to ensure the achievement of its MDGs will beconsiderably bolstered by access to reliable data onchildbirths, child mortality and others factors that affectthese outcomes. To improve data reporting, data collectionneeds to be consistent in its methods and sources, which iscurrently not the case. As a result, health facilities andnational agencies' reports diverge significantly fromthe results of nationally representative surveys. With thisin mind, the study therefore set out to identify the mainfactors affecting two specific areas of Tajikistan'sHealth Information System-namely the child birth and deathregistration system as well as the possible steps to addressthem. The analysis reveals a number of issues that are keyconstraints to the further development of the vitalstatistics system in Tajikistan, particularly in thespecific area of registration of births and deaths. Most ofthese go well beyond the health sector's span and callfor broader action by the Government in order to beeffectively and comprehensively addressed. The mostimportant is the absence of clear leadership and ownershipamong the Government agencies for the issues related toaccurate vital statistics. In view of this, there areseveral priority actions that have to be taken over theshort to medium term by the Government and its key agenciesto improve this situation. The most critical action is toclearly establish one Government agency to undertake theoverall coordination, responsibility and ownership on theissue of vital statistics.
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