Dear colleagues,

Some of you have asked in the last days where we stand on the release of the MICS data and I apologize for only now coming back to you with an update.

As you know, the fieldwork was successfully completed in the end of December 2018. Since then Geostat, NCDC and UNICEF, including its MICS experts from the Regional Office in Geneva, are intensively working to prepare the data for the release. As a first step, on 23 April 2019, the data on the lead component will be released to the wider public. You will receive a separate invitation to this event.

As a second step, in May 2019, we plan to also publish the results of the water data.

At the same time, the data cleaning and final report preparation is unfortunately taking more time than we originally hoped for. As we need to go through this process as thoroughly as possible to avoid any mistakes that could undermine the credibility of the MCIS data, we hope for your understanding that we have to postpone the release of the final report to July 2019. We will let you know the exact date during June.

UNICEF Georgia would like to reiterate our gratitude for your generous contributions to, and close cooperation during the MICS. Only through your contributions and cooperation GeoStat, NCDC and UNICEF were able to successfully implement the MICS, including its water and lead components.

We thank you for your support and apologize for the inconveniences created by the delay.

With best regards,

Gottfried

Gottfried Hanne

Deputy Representative

Tel:   +995 32 2251130 ext. 264

Mob: +995 591 22 52 91

E-Mail: ghanne@unicef.org

United Nations Children’s Fund

UNICEF Georgia

UN House, IV floor, 9 Eristavi Street, 0179 Tbilisi

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