On March 16, 2014, a working group meeting was held in a series of meetings devoted to Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for sexual and reproductive health (SRH). The working group included representatives of UNFPA Armenia country office, different ministries, international organizations and NGOs working in the field.
The Minimum Initial Service Package – MISP for short – is a coordinated set of activities designed to meet acute reproductive health needs during the initial phase of an emergency. It was introduced as a key recommendation two years ago during UNFPA's 2010 Global Planning Meeting. Following this, the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) Sub-regional and Regional Office committed to work together to enhance the humanitarian response, emergency preparedness and access to sexual reproductive health services in crisis prone countries in the region.
MISP is of extreme importance to Armenia being a disaster-prone country with earthquake risks, presence of an operational nuclear power station combined with an unstable security situation in the region. The UNFPA Armenia CO promoted in-country roll-out of the tool for the assessment of countries’ readiness to provide Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) during humanitarian crisis.
The thematic working group was established in 2012 as part of the national platform on disaster risk reduction to integrate the MISP into national emergency planning.
The next steps anticipate analysis of the collected data and identification of the preparedness level in the country. An action plan tackling the existing gaps will be also further developed.
