KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to launch a Rs101.752 million (m) Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in order to fill in the data gaps for monitoring human development in general and situation of children and women in particular. This was stated by Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday while he discussed United Nations (UN) Maternal and Child Nutrition Stunting Reduction Programme with United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Field Office chief Ms Cristina Brugiolo in a meeting at the CM House. CM Murad told Brugiolo that the MICS was being executed by the Bureau of Statistics of Planning and Development (P&D) department. He informed her that Rs 12.5 m had been released for completion of the project. Mr Shah said that the objective of the programme was to ?ll in the data gaps for monitoring human development in general and situation of children and women in particular. “Five rounds of MICS have been completed globally and now MICS-6 is going to be conducted during 2016-2019,” he said. “MICS produces statistically sound, internationally comparable estimates of social indicators such as those required for monitoring the goals and targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other international commitments,” explained the CM. P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem informed the meeting that MICS was going to be conducted at national level. He said that the department would coordinate with Pakistan Bureau of Statistics in Islamabad to conduct the survey. He added that technical support would be provided by UNICET. As per details, purpose of conducting the MICS VI is to provide relevant data for evidence based planning and policy making in various socio-economic sectors. Main training for collecting data on 171 indicators for several SDGs for Sindh was initiated on October 1, 2018. The UN Maternal and Child Nutrition Stunting Reduction Program (MCNSR) also came under discussion during the meeting. MCNSR is a USAID-sponsored and Unicef implemented programme with the goal to contribute towards a reduction in stunting rates by focusing on the 1000 day critical window through multi-sectoral approach. Consistent with this goal, Unicef will initiate nutrition-speci?c targeted interventions aligned with other nutrition sensitive activities in other sectors of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in speci?c districts, including Ghotki, Khairpur and Nausheroferoze. It was decided that the Sindh government will provide stewardship and necessary leadership in the Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation sectors to prioritize and assure critical budget allocations, align human resources and bring necessary policy and management reforms to address key maternal, child health and child nutrition issues as well as access to water, sanitation and hygiene-related challenges. The goals to be achieved by December 2018 include development of nutrition sensitive WASH sector master plan, drinking water policy and a comprehensive strategy for the development of operational plans for WASH and nutrition sectors. P&D chairman Mohammad Waseem said that targets had been set for the MCNSR programme based on available data. The meeting was attended by P&D chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sajjid Jamal Abro, Health secretary Usman Chachar and other relevant officials. Objectives of MICS-6 * To provide updated and reliable statistics on various social and economic indicators at households. * To empower the decision makers at division and district levels by providing them with information regarding the socio-economic indicators. * To provide a basis for comparison of the progress, in relation to various key socio-economic indicators, with previous rounds of MICS. * To establish benchmarks baseline of those indicators which were not covered earlier for assessment of the progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a regular basis in the province and for meeting other international commitments. * Provision of data on 32 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since MICS-6 will partially address 1st to 8th, 10th , 16th and 17th goals of SDGs. * Using in depth analysis to identify gaps and grey areas in social sectors by collecting relevant data up to district level and facilitating planners and policy makers in evidence-based planning and efficient resource allocation. * To provide data for time series analysis and cross comparisons. Targets to be achieved under MCNSR * At least 480,000 people with improved access to water services. * At least 800,000 people in the targeted talukas should have access to sanitary latrines * At least 600,000 people in target talukas should be living in open defecation free (ODF) environment. * At least six talukas (Mehrabpur, Moro, Kotdji and Kingri, Ubauro and Mirpur Mathelo) should be made open defecation free (ODF). * At least 600,000 people in intervention talukas should use soap to wash their hands. * At least 133, 777 of children and 258.323 pregnant or pre-pregnant and lactating women should have access to essential micronutrients. * At least 303,228 of children should access services on Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) management (screening of children). * At least 78.370 (1000/0 PLW in targeted districts) mothers and caregivers should be aware of Infant and Young Child Feeding practices. Published in Daily Times, September 6th 2018.