Orientation to Karnali State Assembly Members

Members of the Karnali Provincial Assembly have been briefed on risk communication in times of crisis, the role to be played by the people's representatives, vigilance to be adopted in effective communication and good practice.

 The program, organized by the Ministry of Health and Population under the coordination of the National Assembly, with the technical assistance of the World Health Organization in Nepal, increased the number of vaccinations, increased participation in health and social adherence, and disseminated accurate and scientific information on health emergencies.

 Officials from the Ministry of Health and experts from the World Health Organization presented working papers on scientific topics related to mental health, health of senior citizens and public health and social measures, vaccination strategy against COVID-19 and recently issued guidelines on risk communication and community participation.

 Dr. Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav, Head of the Office of the World Health Organization in Nepal, gave a presentation on non-communicable diseases, mental health, health status of senior citizens, impact of Kovid-19 epidemic and prevention and control measures. Dr. Alison Gokotano, Head of Emergency Program at the World Health Organization's Nepal office, gave a presentation on science related to public health standards in the context of the Kovid-19 epidemic.

 Dr. Binod Bura, Head of Vaccination Program at the WHO Nepal Office, informed about the importance of the role of people's representatives in making the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 nationwide. Dr. Vivek Kumar Lal, Director, Family Welfare Division, Department of Health Services, presented the strategy of the Ministry of Health and Population for the vaccination program against COVID-19. He said that everyone has a role to play in educating the community about the importance of vaccination against COVID-19 and that health workers should reach out to the community and get involved in the vaccination campaign.

 Dr. Radhika Thapaliya, Health Education Administrator, Ministry of Health, spoke about the various aspects, principles and practices of risk communication and community participation, its importance and good practices. Sheila Shrestha, Senior Health Education Administrator at the National Center for Health, Education, Information and Communication, said that the Ministry of Health and Population's recently released Risk Communication and Community Participation Guideline, establishment of mechanism and directive provided to people's representatives to strengthen community participation mechanism in case of crisis. 

 The program was attended by the Chief Minister of Karnali State Government, Speaker of Karnali State Assembly, Deputy Speaker, members of Karnali State Assembly, Secretary of Karnali State Assembly, Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development, Senior Minister of Health and Population. The program was inaugurated by National Assembly Speaker Ganesh Prasad Timilsina.