Speech of Minister of Public Health

Afghanistan is a country that has notable gains in the health and nutrition sector and overall progress toward reaching the M D Gs.

Afghanistan, in the last decade, has made a policy decision that was defining the critical health care services, which was called the Basic Package of Health Services and applying innovative ways in ensuring its delivery to the population. Today, this Basic Package of Health Services has covered more than 60% of the population. While the goal is to increase this coverage to 90% in the next five years, we aim to keep the focus on improving the quality of care within the package and to complete the continuum of care in terms of investments on secondary and tertiary care as well as focus on behaviors that affect health outcomes at the household level.

Progress has been made in achieving the MDG 4 the reduction in child mortality: in 2003 in Afghanistan one out of four children used to die before they reach the age 5 – evidence in 2009 indicates that one out of six children die before reaching age five. The coverage of Basic Package of Health Services and specifically the increase in Immunization coverage accounts for this progress. In Afghanistan, We also expect a possible reduction in Maternal Mortality. A population based study is underway to confirm this.

We, In Afghanistan, have recently developed a National Strategic Framework for the years 2011-2015 that is based on the country commitments to the MDGs and the AFG national development strategy.