Communication for Behavior Change: Expanding Access to Private Sector Health Products and Services in Afghanistan (COMPRI-A)

DATES: February 2006 - November 2011
PARTNERS: Futures Group International
 
The COMPRI-A project focuses on improving the capacity of the private-sector to provide quality health products and services throughout Afghanistan and promotes healthy behaviors for individuals, families, and communities. The project targets private-sector providers, such as pharmacies and private doctors, with the aim of reaching people who do not use or have access to public services. Additionally, the project supports mass media campaigns through local television, radio stations, mobile cinemas, and live theater performances, and works with community leaders to reinforce knowledge and behaviors about child survival, birth spacing, and water treatment solutions that reduce diarrheal diseases. Health products, such as contraceptives, oral rehydration salts, and water purification tablets are distributed through more than 5,300 retail outlets. USAID has been instrumental in creating and developing the Afghanistan Social Marketing Organization to assume responsibility for social-marketing activities.
 
In addition to supporting social marketing, USAID provides technical assistance to private-sector health associations such as the Afghan Private Hospital Association and the Afghan Medical Services Union. To support long-term financing of the health sector, USAID works closely with the Ministry of Public Health to explore public-private partnerships in the hospital sector.
 
USAID’s HIV/AIDS activities are also supported through this project. USAID supports the secretariat functions and activities of the HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee of Afghanistan (HACCA), including workshops for line Ministries, a newsletter, and website. Led by the National AIDS Control Program, HACCA is an inter-ministerial committee comprised of key line ministries and non-governmental organizations working on HIV/AIDS.
 
In addition, USAID provides support to the Youth Health and Development Organization, a local Afghan non-governmental organization, to operate men’s health clinics in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. The Kabul Men’s Health Clinic opened in January 2010, and the Mazar-e-Sharif clinic opened in July 2010. The clinics provide outreach and basic medical services exclusively for men, including HIV/AIDS counseling and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and provide drop-in services for men-who-have sex-with-men populations in these two cities. Starting in December 2011, the Global Fund will provide financial support for these two clinics.