Building on Early Gains in
Afghanistan's Health, Nutrition, and Population Sector
: Challenges and Options

A number of development partners,
including the World Bank, have been actively supporting the
health sector in Afghanistan since 2003-04 (1382 AC).
Collectively, they invested more than $820 million between
2003 (1382 AC) and 2008-09 (1387 AC) and played key roles in
supporting the government in reshaping the country's
health sector. This support continues, with all partners
starting new projects aimed at further strengthening the
sector and building on the successes that have been
achieved. The book is organized as follows. Chapters
one-four tell a coherent story about the achievements of the
sector between 2002 and 2008 (1381-87AC), the financial
resources used to achieve the results, and the contribution
the private sector has made to the achievements. Chapters
five-eight) look forward. They identify the challenges the
sector is facing in meeting human resource needs, expanding
the coverage of the basic package of health services (BPHS),
and increasing the institutional capacity of the Ministry of
Public Health (MoPH). Chapter eight summarizes the lessons
learned and provides options for moving forward.