2019-11-29
The National Statistics Office of Georgia, the Administration of the Government of Georgia, UNICEF Georgia, and the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health have presented the findings of the 2018-2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey to the media.
The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS Georgia 2018, was conducted in 2018 by the National Statistics Office of Georgia under the Global MICS Program, with technical and financial support from UNICEF, and in active cooperation with the Government of Georgia. The lead and water inspection components, added as an exception for Georgia on the initiative of the Government, were co-implemented by the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), in cooperation with the Statistics Office and UNICEF.
According to Head of the Prime Minister's Office Giorgi Sakhokia, these are crucially important components that have been added to the survey as an exception just for Georgia.
"At every stage of the survey's implementation, the position and readiness of the Georgian Government has been clear in relation to collecting vitally important data, especially in directions that often, according to preliminary findings, performed poorly. Consequently, on the initiative of the Government, such critically important components were added as an exception just for Georgia as lead in water testing and water quality assessment. Notably, the Georgian Government's relevant agencies-those that have already launched active work toward solving the problems in this regard-will benefit from the survey's findings by planning further steps based on concrete data," Head of the Prime Minister's Office Giorgi Sakhokia stated.
"We are excited that the National Statistics Office of Georgia, as a result of a long record of cooperation with UNICEF, has successfully completed national-level MICS, which reflects information on the wellbeing of children by country and region. The findings reveal progress in terms of improving the conditions of children in the past few years, though there are still major challenges that will be surely dealt with," UNICEF Representative Ghassan Khali said.
CEO of the National Statistics Office Gogita Todradze thanked UNICEF for supporting MICS and other activities, and congratulated the implementing team on the successful completion of the project. According to him, "This survey seeks to collect detailed information on the conditions of families, women, and children in the country.
Accordingly, the survey has resulted in the accumulation of quality, internationally comparable data across a variety of categories, which is crucially important for developing evidence-based policies."
MICS has been implemented with significant support from 11 different donors, including the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), USAID, the French Development Agency (AFD), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the World Health Organization (WHO), UNDP, the World Bank, the Italian National Institute of Health, and NCDC.
The survey will help the Georgian Government solve existing problems by developing a concrete working plan based on actual data, and its implementation will promote reaching sustainable development goals.