The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

Even before the current crisis, the humanitarian situation in Yemen was suffering from many problems affecting the life’s standards of the population. The poor humanitarian situation in the country resulted from many factors such as political instability, multiple localized conflicts and chronic und...

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Main Author: Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2022
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Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38057/1/Hanan%20Saleh.pdf
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spelling my-unimas-ir.380572023-04-12T05:51:24Z The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen 2022-02-07 Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi H Social Sciences (General) JA Political science (General) Even before the current crisis, the humanitarian situation in Yemen was suffering from many problems affecting the life’s standards of the population. The poor humanitarian situation in the country resulted from many factors such as political instability, multiple localized conflicts and chronic underdevelopment. All those factors led Yemen to become one of the poorest countries in the Middle East as the majority of its population lives below the poverty threshold. Moreover, when the armed conflict started in March 2015 the civilian infrastructures in the country impacted heavily including hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, public services such as water and sanitation services. In addition, the whole country started experiencing a great shortage of supplies such as food and medications which unfortunately caused mass risks to millions of people. Polio is one of the highest infectious viral diseases affecting young children, although it is considered a vaccine-preventable disease the children in Yemen still exposing to it. Therefore, fighting against polio was one of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) battles as children in Yemen were always exposed to the danger of being affected by that disease. This research aims to provide an assessment regarding the major interventions that UNICEF uses to deliver the immunization service including polio vaccines to children during the current humanitarian crisis in the country. The data collection was conducted by using a mixed-method to collect the data from 108 sampled households in addition to the structured interviews with the key informant personnel such as the health facilities management, immunization supervisors and UNICEF’s key personnel. The analysis of the results showed that UNICEF’s support has a positive impact on the immunization programme in Yemen. However, a point to be highlighted is that the coverage rate improves slowly due to several challenges faced by the population during the humanitarian crisis. The massive displaced movement due to the conflict caused more iv pressure on the health facilities which became unable to provide some areas with immunization services. The conflict also causes a decrease in the number of mobile immunization teams and national vaccination campaigns. In addition, it was found that many immunization interventions are carried out without developing a monitoring plan or training the health workers on the reporting system including data collection, analysis and calculating coverage rate or drop-out rate. This study proposed recommendations to resolve these challenges, the aid agencies such as UNICEF need to put some pressure on the conflict parties to facilitate the INGOs' work without delaying their humanitarian aids. Also, UNICEF needs to prioritize its financial and technical support to increase the number of health personnel in the expanded programme on immunization staff and mobile immunization members to be able to deliver the immunization services and handle the extra workload caused by the current humanitarian crisis. The study also recommends strengthening the immunization information system at all levels; monitoring, evaluation, on-site supervision and disease surveillance. The immunization programme should develop a detailed monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure acceptable standards of quality and effectiveness in the implemented immunization interventions. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2022-02 Thesis http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38057/ http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38057/1/Hanan%20Saleh.pdf text en validuser masters Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
collection UNIMAS Institutional Repository
language English
topic H Social Sciences (General)
JA Political science (General)
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
JA Political science (General)
Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi
The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
description Even before the current crisis, the humanitarian situation in Yemen was suffering from many problems affecting the life’s standards of the population. The poor humanitarian situation in the country resulted from many factors such as political instability, multiple localized conflicts and chronic underdevelopment. All those factors led Yemen to become one of the poorest countries in the Middle East as the majority of its population lives below the poverty threshold. Moreover, when the armed conflict started in March 2015 the civilian infrastructures in the country impacted heavily including hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, public services such as water and sanitation services. In addition, the whole country started experiencing a great shortage of supplies such as food and medications which unfortunately caused mass risks to millions of people. Polio is one of the highest infectious viral diseases affecting young children, although it is considered a vaccine-preventable disease the children in Yemen still exposing to it. Therefore, fighting against polio was one of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) battles as children in Yemen were always exposed to the danger of being affected by that disease. This research aims to provide an assessment regarding the major interventions that UNICEF uses to deliver the immunization service including polio vaccines to children during the current humanitarian crisis in the country. The data collection was conducted by using a mixed-method to collect the data from 108 sampled households in addition to the structured interviews with the key informant personnel such as the health facilities management, immunization supervisors and UNICEF’s key personnel. The analysis of the results showed that UNICEF’s support has a positive impact on the immunization programme in Yemen. However, a point to be highlighted is that the coverage rate improves slowly due to several challenges faced by the population during the humanitarian crisis. The massive displaced movement due to the conflict caused more iv pressure on the health facilities which became unable to provide some areas with immunization services. The conflict also causes a decrease in the number of mobile immunization teams and national vaccination campaigns. In addition, it was found that many immunization interventions are carried out without developing a monitoring plan or training the health workers on the reporting system including data collection, analysis and calculating coverage rate or drop-out rate. This study proposed recommendations to resolve these challenges, the aid agencies such as UNICEF need to put some pressure on the conflict parties to facilitate the INGOs' work without delaying their humanitarian aids. Also, UNICEF needs to prioritize its financial and technical support to increase the number of health personnel in the expanded programme on immunization staff and mobile immunization members to be able to deliver the immunization services and handle the extra workload caused by the current humanitarian crisis. The study also recommends strengthening the immunization information system at all levels; monitoring, evaluation, on-site supervision and disease surveillance. The immunization programme should develop a detailed monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure acceptable standards of quality and effectiveness in the implemented immunization interventions.
format Thesis
qualification_level Master's degree
author Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi
author_facet Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi
author_sort Hanan Saleh Nasser Abdullah, Al-Jahmi
title The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
title_short The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
title_full The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
title_fullStr The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
title_full_unstemmed The Role of UNICEF's Intervention Programs in Improving Polio Coverage During the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen
title_sort role of unicef's intervention programs in improving polio coverage during the humanitarian crisis in yemen
granting_institution Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
granting_department Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
publishDate 2022
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/38057/1/Hanan%20Saleh.pdf
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