COMPRI-A Conference: Expanding Access to Private Sector Health Products and Services in Afghanistan

The Ministry of Public Health, as the national steward for the health sector in Afghanistan, is interested in the principles of partnership and collaboration with all stakeholders sector-wide. The stakeholders include communities, private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, UN organizations, academia and research organizations. This stakeholder involvement aims to make the best use of limited resources in working toward achieving equitable and sustainable improvements in health. The Ministry of Public Health favors developing strong coordination between national programs, social marketing and a supportive environment to strengthen public-private partnerships.

Intermediate result four (IR4) of the COMPRI-A Project is: “Improved policy environment for effective delivery of quality health products and services through the private sector.” To initiate progress toward the project's intermediate result, the Policy Deptartment of COMPRI-A conducted an overview of the policy environment. The assessment suggested that COMPRI-A:

• Support the MoPH to launch a bold Public/Private Partnership Initiative facilitated by a task force
• As an initial activity, hold a workshop with participants from the public sector, private sector (NGO and commercial) and professional associations.

Following the assessment recommendations, the Policy Department conducted the “Strengthening the Public/Private Sector Health Policy Environment Workshop” on the 13th and 14th of November at the Intercontinental Hotel, Kabul. Representatives from the public and private (NGO and commercial) sectors, professional associations and donor agencies participated. The workshop successfully achieved its four objectives:

1. To reach consensus on the current status of public/private sector health policy
2. To agree on public/private sector health policy priorities
3. To define a strategic framework to respond to health policy priorities
4. To increase participants understanding of the role of health policy

To measure the policy environment, the Policy Environment Score, an internationally applied policy tool, was adapted to review the degree to which the policies of the Islamic government of Afghanistan facilitate private sector delivery of health products and services.