ACTD Health Program
ACTD understands the strong link between health services and sustainable development and central role of healthy populations towards human progress and sustainable development. It is in full agreement with WHO that measuring health can showcase how well development is advancing the three pillars of sustainability – social, environmental and economic and therefore, calls for universal health coverage. Therefore, ACTD based on pressing need, contribution to the attainment of millennium development goals by the country and in line with the its vision and mission opted to be involved in health services delivery in its journey towards its vision of sustainable development in Afghanistan.
The need for providing health services was created by the more than three decades of war and civil strife, which adversely affected the delivery of health services in the country disrupting the network of public service delivery and leaving the health services delivery mainly to NGOs up to 2002. The new government elected in the year 2002, due to its limited capacity in terms of human resources, highly bureaucratic system and influencing by donors also opted to pursue the delivery of health-care services through NGOs performance-based contracting initiatives approach.
Based on the need and having sufficient experience and expertise, ACTD decided to undertake health services delivery in partnership with MoPH and other donors. It established a separate department of health in its structure for this purpose that is involved in implementation of different projects of health services delivery and other complementary projects (nutrition, TB, malaria and HIV/Aids control) and also humanitarian assistance projects. The types of project implemented are:
1. Implementation of Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS)
BPHS is a foundation of Afghan health system created by MoPH in 2003 which delineates the services that should be provided by each type of health care facility and specifies the staffs, equipment, diagnostic services and medication required to provide such services. ACTD implemented these projects in six provinces from 2009-2013. Currently, it implements it in three provinces namely Paktia, Helmand and Ghor through 156 health facilities [seven District hospitals (DH), two Comprehensive Health Centers Plus (CHC+) 25 Comprehensive Health Centers (CHCs), 63 Basic Health Centers (BHCs), 48 sub-health centers (SCs), 2 Prison Clinics, 9 Mobile Health Teams (MHTs)] and 1,126 health posts (HPs) serving a population of 1.6 million people.
2. Nutrition-related projects
while providing nutrition services as part of BPHS projects, ACTD also implemented other complementary nutrition projects funded by other donors. These projects included 1) Therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs and 2) Targeted Supplementary Feeding programs which aims at reducing morbidities and mortalities among women and children associated with malnutrition through therapeutic and supplementary feeding program, stabilizing and reducing the prevalence of moderate and acute malnutrition amongst children 6-59 months and pregnant and lactating women and preventing them from becoming severely malnourished by providing supplementary feeding and capacity building of service providers and community health workers. ACTD's main partners in nutrition were Action Contra la Faim (ACF), Oxfam Novib (ON) and Save the Children. So far ACTD has implementing following nutrition projects.
3. Other health projects
Other complementary projects supported by other donors like malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS control, nutrition, Nutrition and WASH, provision of quality health services to Nomadic population and provision of counseling , treatment and rehabilitation services to drugs addicts.
4. Humanitarian health projects
Humanitarian Assistance projects which include 1) Emergency Mobile Health Services for disaster affected people 2) Improve access to equitable emergency health services in conflict affected areas 3) Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction 40) distribution of food and non-food items to disaster affected people and 5) Health, nutrition and psychosocial support Services to Externally Displaced Population (EDPs) in Gulan Camp in Khost province.
The detailed list of health projects of ACTD can be accessed here.
