Emmanuel Roussier1
1UNFPA, Regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates, every country is vulnerable to some form of crisis and, often, many crises occurring at the same time. The impact ofnatural disasters, climate change, conflict, and infectious disease outbreaks onhealth and societal well-being depends on how well countries and communitiesprepare for and respond to emergencies.
Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs are not put on pause during emergencies—and often increase due to disruptions to health systems, displacement and breakdowns in societal protection and social structures.
In 1995, members of the international humanitarian community formed the Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) on Reproductive Health in Crises and developed a set of minimum reproductive health interventions to be put in place at the outset of a humanitarian crisis known as the Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP) for SRH. The MISP includes the SRH services that are most important in preventing morbidity and mortality while protecting the right to life with dignity in humanitarian settings.
To assess a country’s readiness to provide these services, the regional Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) IAWG developed the MISP readiness assessment tool in 2013, which was upgraded in 2020 by IPPF, with the collaboration of UNFPA and the global IAWG. These new guidelines will allow all SRH national working groups in EECA, including in Albania, to re-assess thenational readiness to implement the MISP at the onset of a crisis, and define their priorities for the next 4 years.
Keywords:Minimum Initial Service Package (MISP), Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH), UNFPA.