PESHAWAR: The United Nations Children’s Fund has clarified a report titled “No role left for Unicef in social mobilisation in anti-polio campaign” published in Dawn on March 3 and has said that after the tragic killings of frontline health workers, it had rather enhanced social mobilisation and communication activities to eradicate the crippling disease.

It had become all the more important for the success of polio eradication campaign in Pakistan to widen the scope of work, said a statement issued here on Thursday.

The Unicef which is supporting the social mobilisation polio efforts in Pakistan termed the report incorrect, saying that its Communication Network (Comnet) staff worked in 33 districts in the country and was engaged in addressing refusal clusters, implementing social mobilisation activities to ensure greater ownership of the programme by the people.

It said that all the Unicef activities were implemented in close coordination with the government and the Comnet staff worked under direct supervision of the government at the union council, tehsil and district level.

The emergency operational and security guidelines were developed after consultation among representatives of the Unicef, WHO and the government to ensure the safety of the vaccinators after the assassination of 15 people in polio-related incidents in Karachi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to further ensure the safety of the workers.—Bureau Report