A TWO day provincial dissemination workshop on the “Solomon Islands Demographic and Health Survey 2015” (SI DHS 2015) for Guadalcanal Province (GP) was successfully held and concluded on Wednesday 20th September, 2017.
The event was held at the Star Event Conference room in Honiara from Tuesday 19th to 20th Wednesday, last week.
About 40 participants from Guadalcanal Province various government department, women council/organisation and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) attended the dissemination event.
The workshop was organised by the Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO) within the Ministry of Finance & Treasury (MoFT) as part of its major roll-out programme on the SI DHS 2015 final report provincial dissemination exercise into the provinces following the official launch and Honiara dissemination workshop held in June 6th -7th, 2017.
The purpose of the dissemination exercise is to ensure information (final report) of the survey reach the people in the rural areas who provided the information during the survey.
For Guadalcanal, it was a lively workshop as participants were given the opportunity to discuss topics presented and issues pertaining health concerns in the province (GP) and to ensure responsible authority (divisions) within Guadalcanal Province embarks on ways to formulate strategies to address such pressing problems.
Presenting on the topic “Malaria” Dr Hugo Bugoro said Malaria is still a major problem in the province and the country as a whole.
He said fighting this endemic health problem (Malaria) means appropriate strategies must be in place and taken by both provincial and national government responsible ministries.
Dr Bugoro encouraged people to ensure everyone uses Mosquito nets and other mosquitos’ repellent to avoid catching Malaria.
He said awareness is also important to educate people about Malaria and approaches that one would take to evade getting sick with Malaria.
Other topics that also brought heated debate on the floor include child labour, women’s empowerment, HIV & Aids related knowledge and Attitudes and Behaviour and more.
Guadalcanal Provincial Member, Honourable Brian Tuva Minister for Health and Medical Services while commending the National Statistics Office (NSO) for the survey report said the report and information within it are vital and would be a yardstick for GP health authority to ensure it frames policies to address such health issues affecting the province.
He said the report is significant given the importance that it will help Guadalcanal Provincial Government various divisions in its future policy making course.
Meanwhile, Government Statistician Douglas Kimi said apart from SI DHS 2015 other surveys and projects that the National Statistics Office are currently embark on include;
· National Agriculture Survey (ongoing)
· Household Income and expenditure survey – Extended for National CPI Project and poverty (ongoing activities)
· Village Resource Survey (VRS) and Household Listing (new/ongoing)
· Proposed quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) (new/ongoing).
· The 2019 Population and Housing Census Preparations
He said Guadalcanal Province was given the first choice for the DHS 2015 dissemination adding NSO is also eyeing to host similar workshops in other venues in the province (Guadalcanal) soon.
Mr Kimi also called on the participants to be advocators for NSO to ensure people collaborate and support Statistics Office in providing vital and right information during the course of its upcoming survey projects.
He said providing right information to the NSO is important to guarantee it was recorded adding such support through providing right information will also help the government, stakeholders and policy makers in formulating appropriate policies/strategies that will help enhance the socio-economic development of the country.
The provincial dissemination workshop is extended to Malaita and Western province this week after Guadalcanal Province, to be followed by Choiseul, Isabel, Central, Makira, Temotu and Renbel Province.
The Solomon Islands Demographic and Health Survey 2015 (SIDHS 2015) is a nationally representative survey of 6,266 women aged 15–49 and 3,591 men aged 15–54.
The SIDHS 2015 was the second such survey for the country. The first one was conducted in 2006–2007.
The primary purpose of the SIDHS is to furnish policy-makers and planners with detailed information on fertility, family planning, infant and child mortality, maternal and child health and nutrition, and knowledge of HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
The SIDHS 2015 is a follow up of the SIDHS 2006–2007 and is designed to provide updated data to monitor the population and health situation in Solomon Islands.
The report which contains 16 chapters summarises the findings of the SIDHS 2015 implemented by the SINSO in collaboration with the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services (SIMoHMS).
The SIDHS 2015 project was funded jointly by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)-Aid Program, SIG and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
