Sunday June 9, 2013
Kabul (BNA) In a telephone conversation Hamid Karzai President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with Bill Gates, the founder and head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation discussed the need to enhance efforts for eradicate of polio in Afghanistan.
Appreciating the efforts and the help Mr. Gates’ foundation is making to wipe out the children’s disease across the world and in Afghanistan, President Karzai and Mr. Gates agreed that the polio routine immunization needed to be further intensified.
The President stressed that in order to maximize the effect of anti-polio campaign, quarterly meetings were important to be held with the governors of the provinces where still this viral disease exist.
The Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation runs projects to eradicate polio throughout the world and has been helping efforts to fight the fatal disease in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
 

Thursday, May 16, 2013
Kabul (BNA) Ministry of public health signed three partnership agreements with Germany, Canada and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the ministry said in a statement.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is trying its best to expand health sector under which the people could get full access to health essentials all over the country.
While signing three partnership protocols with the ministry, the said donors expressed their long-term commitments in supporting the health sector of Afghanistan, the ministry’s press office said in a statement.
As the people of Afghanistan have suffered much from lack of healthcare during the last several decades of war and civil skirmish in the country, the ministry of public health is trying its best to establish healthcare centers including midwifery and drug addict treatment.  The partnership protocols was signed between Afghan Public Health Minister Dr. Suraya Dalil, USAID Head of Mission for Afghanistan Mr. Ken Yamashita, Deputy Ambassador of Germany Mr. Owcza and Ambassador of Canada Mr. Glenh Davidson here in Kabul on Monday, the statement said.
According to the statement, the main goal of these protocols are to strengthen capacity of the MoPH for implementation of policies, strategies, program, projects and activities, and to establish a stronger and more effective and efficient use of development partners support for the health care system in order to meet the health needs of the Afghan people.
Based on commitments of international community pledged in Tokyo conference, these three partnership protocols was signed with Germany and Canada USAID, said Dr. Suraya Dalil, Minister of Public Health to the media men.
She added in accordance with the protocols, these three international Health partners of Afghanistan are committed to provide technical and financial support for a long-term towards the health development programs in the country.  While emphasizing on continued cooperation with the Afghan government, USAID Head of Mission for Afghanistan Mr. Ken Yamashtia, said over the past decade, together with Afghan government gained significant achievements in delivering of health services in Afghanistan.
“In the future under the any conditions, USAID is also committed to support the health sector of Afghanistan for a long-time, he added.  Meanwhile Deputy Ambassador of Germany Mr. Owcza and Ambassador of Canada Mr. Glen Davidson express their further cooperation in providing technical and financial support with Afghan Government, said their countries have assisted many health project in Afghanistan during past decade.

Sunday May 12, 2013
Kabul (BNA) Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on Saturday launched “Job Fair” for the first time in the country to provide information regarding the vacant posts of health facilities for the educated youth and newly graduates in all provinces of Afghanistan.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Suraya Dalil, the Minister of Public health said, the shortage of health workers in many health facilities is one of the major challenges for the MoPH in providing health services.
She said the MoPH to address this problem, launched the first Job fair for two days to recruit health workers for health facilities of all provinces of Afghanistan.
“The purpose of this exhibition is to recruit those compatriots who have capacity and skills in providing of health services, and seeking jobs in health sector of Afghanistan” Dr. Dalil added.
The minister further said, by inauguration of this job fair, we will be able to solve the problem of shortage of health workers in health sector of Afghanistan and also provide sufficient information for jobs seekers who are willing to work in health facilities of the MoPH.
“In the job fair more than 1176 vacant posts were announced in which 703 for female and 473 for male.
Of course the female health workers can apply for all the announced vacant posts” she continued.
MoPH the in coordination with the implementing agencies of basic health services is striving to find suitable candidates for above vacant posts via various ways, including Job fair to address shortage problem of health workers, particularly in the remote areas of Afghanistan.
It is word to mention more than 36000 health workers are currently working in health sector of Afghanistan, including 12800 female health workers.
 

Sunday, May 12, 2013
Kabul (BNA) Afghanistan health sector would get developed as a $ 100 million grant, to finance the Afghanistan System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition (SEHAT) program, was signed between the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank few days ago.
The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) Grant aims to help the government of Afghanistan, s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) expand the scope , quality and coverage of basic health and essential hospital services and SEHAT will cover both rural and urban areas in22 of the country ‘s 34 provinces , the statement said . According to the statement, it will also strengthen the national health system and build the capacity of the Ministry of Public Health to effectively perform its stewardship functions at the central and provincial levels.
“Provision of health care to its people remain one of the main priorities of the Government during the transition “, Fiancé Ministry Omar Zakhailwal was quoted in the statement as saying.
“While we have had significant improvement in access and quality of health care in Afghanistan over the last decade, more needs to be done. We are grateful to the World Bank’s contribution in this regard”, the minister said. SEHAT follows two earlier projects financed by the World Bank. With this new financing, the World Bank has provided a total of $335 million since 2003 including support from the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF). This funding would be further supplemented by a proposed ARTF funded grant of $ 270 million including European Union and Government contribution of $30 million. Over the past decade, Afghanistan has made steady progress in the health sector. The number of health facilities in 11 target provinces nearly tripled from 148 to 432. Around 20,000 community health workers –half of them women –were trained and deployed throughout of the country, played throughout the country, increasing access to family planning and boosting childhood vaccinations. The number of facilities with trained female health workers rose from 25 percent before the project to 74 percent today. At the same time, the number of functioning health facilities increased from 496 to more than 2,000. These interventions have produced significant improvement in the coverage of reproductive and child health services, as well as a significant drop in maternal and child mortality.” The World Bank’s support has been instrumental in enabling us to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Afghans, particularly women and children.” said HE Dr. Suraya Dalil, Minister of Public Health of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” Providing a basic package of health services and an essential package of hospital services has proved to produce encouraging results, particularly in remote and underserved areas. As we continue to deliver our commitment in expanding provision of health services to all Afghans across the country, we appreciate the World Bank’s assistance at this crucial period of the transition process” The above outcomes were possible because of the Basic Package of Health Services (BPHS) and Essential Package of Hospital Services (EPHS) implemented by the Ministry of Public Health with support from international and national NGOs for delivery of health services across the country. SEHAT will expand to 22 provinces and continue to support these Services. As well as strengthen the capacity of the Ministry through modernizing systems , streamlining organizational structures , building a cadre of skilled and motivated staff and making hospitals more autonomous. Despite recent progress, the country faces significant challenges in the sector. Afghanistan’s infant and under –five mortality rates are still higher than the average for low income countries, and child malnutrition rates are among the highest in the world. About 55 percent of children under – five suffer from chronic malnutrition and women and children suffer from high levels of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. “The encouraging achievements in the health sector over the past decade were possible because of the Ministry of public Health’s commitment to improving health services and measuring service delivery performance with assistance from its partner NGOs,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Acting Country Director for Afghanistan.” This new program will help ensure expansion of basic health and hospital services for both urban and rural areas where due to lack of such services thousands of people, particularly women and children, lose their lives every year. We believe these packages of health services we finance play a vital role in improving the health of Afghan,” The Ministry of Public Health will implement SEHAT program over a period of five years. In 2018, through SEHAT, Afghanistan aims to achieve the following outcomes: Here are details for the program to be development in the country: -35% of births attended by skilled health personnal-60 % of children aged between 12 and 23 months will be vaccinated against five vaccine preventable diseases-40%of pregnant women will have antenatal care coverage -50%of pregnant and lactating women would have received counseling on infant and young child feeding -15 national hospitals will have budgetary autonomy.