OVERVIEW

The USAID Health Sector Resiliency (HSR) project supports the Government of Afghanistan to foster a stronger and increasingly self-reliant health system. The project’s objectives are to improve health sector governance and accountability, increase government financing for priority health services, and strengthen human resource systems at the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). HSR works at the national and sub-national levels, applying best practices in health governance and accountability. HSR also supports the MoPH to implement the World Bank-funded System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition (SEHAT) and subsequent (SEHATMANDI) initiatives.

ACTIVITIES

• Upgrade Afghanistan’s Health Management Information System to create a national data warehouse and enhance the culture of data use
• Strengthen private health sector enabling environments and MoPH private sector oversight.
• Engage the private sector (through public-private partnerships and access to capital) to increase government revenue for the health sector
• Strengthen private sector associations’ ability to self-regulate through certification and accreditation
• Support the MoPH to advocate and implement strategies to increase the health budget (health facility user fees and possible tobacco tax)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• HSR provided technical and financial support to health businesses during a Mumbai, India international trade and investment show in September 2018. This work resulted in Afghan and Indian health business interactions that led to 38 MoUs and 12 contracts signed. The business-to-business partnerships will increase investment and expansion of quality health services in Afghanistan and decrease the need for Afghans to travel abroad for health care.
• HSR developed user fees guidelines as well as a user fees exemption guideline to alleviate financial hardship. The guidelines will enable MoPH to properly implement a user fees system.
• HSR conducted a baseline assessment for user fees to enable the MoPH to measure changes and in utilization and quality of services at Kabul hospitals after introduction of the user fees.
• HSR supported MoPH to start a user fees system in 28 tertiary and specialty hospitals in Kabul and provinces. As of March 2019, the user fees had generated more than 41 million AFS for MoPH.
• HSR supported the MoPH in drafting the health insurance law, the legal basis for introducing health insurance in Afghanistan.
• HSR supported the MoPH Monitoring Directorate to implement Minimum Required Standards (MRS) at 90 private hospitals in Kabul and three provinces. Full implementation of the MRS, including its feedback mechanism, will help MoPH to better steward improvement of the basic quality of health services at private health facilities.
• HSR developed a Human Resource Management Information System (HMIS) data base on all public health sector personnel information, a significant step in improving accountability, transparency, and efficiency and reducing the risks of ghost workers and wasted resources.
• HSR conducted business planning workshops for health businesses including hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, labs, and medical education institutes. These workshops helped the health businesses with their business plans, strategic plans, and operational plans.