OVERVIEW

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Health Sector Resiliency (HSR) Project supports the Afghan government to foster a strengthened, reformed, and increasingly self-reliant Afghan health system. The project’s technical objectives are to improve health sector governance and accountability, increase government financing for priority health services, and strengthen human resources systems and operations at the Ministry of Public Health.

Building on the accomplishments of other USAID projects, HSR works with the public and private health sectors. The project supports the Ministry of Public Health to strengthen and reform its systems at the national and sub-national levels, applying and adapting relevant best practices. HSR also supports the ministry to successfully implement the System Enhancement for Health Action in Transition (SEHAT) initiative, which is funded by the World Bank.

ACTIVITIES

• Upgrade Afghanistan’s Health Management Information System, create a national data warehouse, and enhance the culture of data use
• Strengthen  administrative reform efforts, capacity building, infrastructure and systems
• Strengthen Provincial Liaison Directorate to facilitate effective subnational collaboration
• Pilot/scale up approaches to strengthen provincial health offices’ capacity to plan, manage, and monitor health activities
• Strengthen private health sector enabling environment and Ministry of Public Health private sector oversight
• Engage the private sector (through Public Private Partnerships, access to capital, etc.) to increase government  revenue for health sector
• Strengthen private sector associations’ ability to self-regulate through certification and accreditation
• Integrate citizen engagement as a key component of government stewardship, and strengthen community development councils and health shuras to advocate for, and monitor, health activities
• Make health information more transparent through a people-centered communications platform
• Support Ministry of Public Health to advocate for, and implement, strategies to increase the health budget (i.e., possible tax on tobacco and health facility user fees )
• Support  reforms, workforce planning and in-service training programs in health human resources

EXPECTED RESULTS

• Health sector governance and accountability improved at national and sub-national level
• Government  financing for priority health services increased
• Ministry of Public Health human resources systems and operations strengthened