OVERVIEW

The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Leadership, Management and Governance project strengthened Afghanistan’s systems for delivering health and education services by increasing the knowledge and capacity of healthcare providers, program managers, and policy makers. The project provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education with a focus on increasing transparency about how budget resources are used and accountability for results.

In the past, USAID provided technical assistance to the ministries through non-governmental organizations.  As the Leadership, Management and Governance project strengthens the ministries’ own systems, USAID is providing direct assistance through Afghanistan’s national budget to support the ministries to implement their own service delivery efforts.

ACTIVITIES

• Supported the On-Budget Programming: Strengthened the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education’s ability to plan and manage the budgets needed to implement service delivery
• Community-Based Health Care: Supported the expansion of the Ministry of Public Health’s Community-Based Health Care services
• Supported Hospital Sector: Implemented hospital autonomy in national and specialty hospitals
• Health Information Systems: Expanded the use of information and evidence for decision-making across the health sector
• Provincial Health System Strengthening: Increased the capacity of Ministry of Public Health national- and provincial-level managers to coordinate health services
• In-Service Training: Provided technical support to strengthen the Ministry of Public Health’s In-Service Training Unit at the national level
• Child and Adolescent Health: Enhanced governance of child survival issues by harmonizing Ministry of Public Health policies with the National Child and Adolescent Health Policy
• Management and Leadership Development Program: Strengthened management and leadership capacity in the Ministry of Public Health.
• Improve Quality of Health Care: Led the development of the “Harmonized Quality Improvement Approach” process
• Nursing and Midwifery Education: Provided technical assistance to strengthen and expand quality nursing and midwifery education

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Created 3,898 new family health action groups across the country
• Trained 883 new community health workers to serve the nomadic populations in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Logar, and Kandhar provinces
• Developed terms of reference and supported the establishment of the National Health Research Committee, a new body governing research activities in Afghanistan
• Introduced and institutionalized a hospital autonomy initiative in 16 national hospitals
• Successfully advocated for provincial “community-based healthcare” officers to be brought onto the official Afghan civil service roster, known as the tashkeel