The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) India and the North Eastern Council (NEC) agreed to work together to strengthen disaster resilience in public health sector for response in case of any emergency.
This was decided in a meeting chaired by NEC secretary Ram Muivah with a team from UNICEF which included health specialist Dr Ashish Dadwal, risk & resilience programme officer Anand P Kar and DDR & CCA consultant Nishant Borgohain.
The NEC has agreed to coordinate the programme.
As an initial effort towards this, the UNICEF state office for Assam will organise a regional consultation programme on “Emergency Preparedness for Public Health Sector” for the states of Sikkim, Meghalaya and Assam in next month with all concerned departments of the state governments like health & family welfare department, PHED, and others with a follow-up consultations and planning with special focus on ‘Aspirational Districts’ of these states.
UNICEF began its work in India in 1949 with three staff members and established an office in Delhi three years later. Currently, it advocates for the rights of India’s children in 16 states.
UNICEF’s goal is to advance the rights of children, adolescents and women to survival, growth, development, participation and protection by reducing inequities based on caste, ethnicity, gender, poverty and region or religion.
UNICEF utilises a multi-pronged approach to addressing pressing issues of health, nutrition, sanitation, education and child protection.
It aims to involve families and community members in understanding their contribution to ensure their children thrive while providing a platform for young community champions to emerge and inspire.
UNICEF uses community level knowledge and quality research to comprehend issues, create and introduce easily implementable innovative interventions that address the situation of children, and works with partners to create ground level change.
The North Eastern Council (NEC) is an agency for economic and social development of states in the North Eastern Region which consists of eight States – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
The NEC was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament. NEC has been instrumental in setting in motion new economic endeavors aimed at removing basic handicaps that stood in the way of normal development of the region.
