Nghe An: Quickly stabilize the team of collaborators to improve the effectiveness of grassroots population work
(Baonghean.vn) - Over the past two years, Nghe An's population work has undergone many changes after merging and rearranging the population collaborators at the grassroots level. This has also somewhat affected activities in localities and a solution needs to be found soon to avoid interrupting the implementation of tasks.
Concerns from the grassroots
Received the taskpopulation collaboratorIt has been nearly a year but Ms. Vu Thi Thuy Linh - population collaborator of Trung Hung block, Hung Dung ward (Vinh city) is still very unfamiliar with this job.
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Vinh City launches population communication campaign. Photo: PV |
This is understandable, because compared to many previous population collaborators, she is still too young, does not have much experience, and has only "been a daughter-in-law in the block" so she does not fully understand the number of households in the village, hamlet as well as does not fully understand family work. "The nature of population work is "going to every alley, knocking on every door, checking every subject" and must grasp the thoughts, feelings and circumstances of each household. However, over the past year, due to the impact of the epidemic, approaching households has been difficult and implementing activities has been limited to avoid large gatherings. Personally, I am new to the job, so I also need to learn a lot to gain experience", Ms. Thuy Linh shared.
In the past 2 years, implementing Resolution 15/2020/NQ - People's Council stipulating a number of policies on population work in Nghe An province, the population collaborators of Vinh city have been reorganized in 2 directions. Accordingly, for wards, population collaborators will concurrently do medical work in the block. For hamlets in communes, medical staff will concurrently do population work.
During the implementation process, due to the new regulations, the reorganization of the population collaborators in the blocks and hamlets encountered many difficulties. Currently, the whole city has only 129 medical staff who also work in population work in the blocks and hamlets. Meanwhile, nearly 200 other blocks and hamlets do not have population collaborators because they do not meet the recruitment standards (must have a medical certificate). The newly recruited team is mostly young, cannot reach each target group and does not have prestige in the community, so most of them cannot manage the number of households in the area.
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Reproductive health care campaign to improve population quality in Le Mao ward. Photo: PV |
Some collaborators even violate population policies, leading to obstacles and difficulties in propaganda and mobilizing people to do well in population work. In addition, the medical and population collaborators currently sign contracts directly with the health center, so the block and hamlet do not manage this group. That is also the reason why the independent collaborators lack direction and coordination with departments, branches and organizations, leading to incomplete collection, reporting and updating of information on population and health changes.
“The lack of human resources at the grassroots level has caused many difficulties in population activities in Vinh city. This is also the reason why the birth rate of the third child or more is increasing, from 8.8% to 15.8%. Notably, there are currently wards and communes with the birth rate of the third child or more (40%) and it will increase in the coming time. Because there is a part of the well-off population with conditions that want to have more children.”
Regarding current population work, recently, at a conference on birth reduction work, leaders of many localities also said: After the merger, currently the population department of the medical center has many senior, enthusiastic staff who have retired or transferred jobs.
Meanwhile, when the new agency had many functions such as examination, prevention and control of epidemics (especially in recent times when the epidemic has become complicated), many human resources of the Population sector had to be mobilized and only a few people remained, leading to difficulties and lack of human resources during operations, affecting activities.
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People of Hung Nguyen district at the contest to learn about population work in the new situation. Photo: My Ha |
Population workers are also concerned because after the merger, some policies and regimes are not suitable. Therefore, there are population officials who have university degrees and have gone to school to improve their qualifications but have not been transferred to another position.
Stabilize the organization and apparatus of the Population sector
Since mid-August 2020, Nghe An has carried out and completed the merger of Population - Family Planning Centers into Health Centers according to Resolution 19-NQ/TW and Plan No. 111-KH/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on merging district-level agencies, including the Population - Family Planning Center and Health Center.
This is consistent with current practice, but after nearly 2 years of implementing the merger, there are still difficulties and concerns. This is also the reason why, at the conference organized by the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning, there were many concerns sent from the grassroots.
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People of Tuong Duong district learn about population policy. Photo: MH |
“After the merger, the population staff has promoted their role and implemented many activities at the grassroots level. However, there are still difficulties because the assignment of tasks according to regulations and superiors is not clear, so the implementation of population professional activities is still inadequate.
Not to mention that in the past 2 years, the Population sector had to carry out two parallel tasks: preventing and fighting the epidemic and performing the sector's expertise, so many propaganda activities and implementing communication campaigns were somewhat affected.
Reality also shows that Nghe An's population work is currently facing many difficulties and challenges. The biggest challenge is the high birth rate (2.79 children), ranking second in the country (after Ha Tinh). In particular, the birth rate of the third child or more is high and tends to continue to increase in most districts, cities and towns; the gender imbalance at birth is at an alarming level; although population quality has been improved, it is still limited; the rate of newborns with genetic diseases, disabilities, and malnutrition is still high...
The problem is that the current investment budget for population work is increasingly limited. That has greatly affected the implementation of the goal of reducing births, reducing the number of third and higher births, and improving population quality.
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Workers of Yen Thanh district participate in your health program, get consultation on reproductive health. Photo: PV |
Sharing the current difficulties of the Population sector, Mr. Nguyen Huu Le - Deputy Director of the Department of Health also said that in order to improve the quality and efficiency of operations, the Population sector needs to continue to advise on the effective implementation of programs and plans approved by superiors such as Resolution No. 15 of the Provincial People's Council, plans issued by the Provincial People's Committee in 2021. In particular, be determined in advising the Party Committee and the government to well implement the targets, in which, pay attention to important targets: Continue to reduce births, reduce the number of third children and above, and minimize gender imbalance at birth.
Regarding the organization of the Health - Population apparatus, after basically stabilizing, the leaders of the Department of Health suggested that the sector needs to control, perfect the apparatus, arrange and allocate enough human resources for the Population Department and the team of hamlet and village health workers who are also population collaborators or population collaborators who are also in charge of block health work (for units that are still lacking) to operate effectively.
On the other hand, the head of the health center needs to learn, research, and grasp population policy; consider population work as one of the political tasks of the agency that needs attention, leadership, direction, and implementation, and perform the task well. At the same time, it is necessary to create all-round conditions for the population staff to work at the center and at the health station.
In addition, localities also need to continue to maintain effective operations of the steering committee, thereby gaining the attention of Party committees and authorities to create favorable conditions in terms of mechanisms, develop local documents and policies, and invest resources in population work.