UNICEF head ends visit

Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), ended a four-day visit to Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest nation, as part of that agency's regional management team meeting on Friday. "This is an annual meeting of UNICEF, which is held twice a year in different locations, involving the heads of the various CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] regions," Philippe Heffinck, the area representative for the Central Asian Republics, told IRIN from the Kazakh capital, Astana. During her visit, stopping in Astana and Almaty, Bellamy met UNICEF colleagues from the region, as well as from New York, and also had separate meetings with senior government officials, including the prime minister, the health and foreign ministers, the deputy education minister and the wife of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. And while her mission was mainly to attend the internal agency meeting, Bellamy was also able to bring up a number of issues specific to Kazakhstan, including those of health, micronutrients, and education. Heffinck cited a number of positive developments on those fronts, including government efforts to prepare a national plan of action for children, following the Special Session on Children in the UN General Assembly in May 2002, as well as the Report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2000. "They are trying to integrate the outcome of the report and the outcome of the Special Session on Children into a national plan of action for children," he explained. Another positive development cited was Astana's commitment to organising the 25th anniversary of the holding of the International Conference on Primary Health Care, which convened in Almaty in 1978. "The Almaty Declaration was the beginning of primary health care all over the world, providing the necessary push for public health in developing countries and countries in transition," Heffinck explained. "This should be the beginning of the review of the success and lessons of the first 25 years of primary health care," he said. Yet another event to take place in the vast steppe nation will be an international forum on maternal and child health for Central Asia due to be held from 5 to 7 November, with the various deputy health ministers of the region participating, together with academics and members of the international community. "This is a yearly event that this year will be held in Kazakhstan," the UNICEF official said. Also during Bellamy's visit, the country's Millennium Development Goals were discussed, particularly efforts to address the issues of maternal health and HIV/AIDS. "We checked the ways and means to accelerate the reduction of child and infant mortality, and also the acceleration of the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the country," Heffinck said. As part of its goals, Kazakhstan hopes to reduce by 65 percent the under-five mortality rate by 2015, while stopping and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by the same year - both of which appear unlikely to be achieved at this point in time.