Lessons From the Health Sector in Afghanistan
How Progress Can Be Made in Challenging Circumstances
- Benjamin Loevinsohn, MD, MPH;
- Ghulam Dastagir Sayed, MD, MPH
- Author Affiliations: World Bank, Washington, DC.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- AFGHANISTAN
- DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE
- INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
- ORGANIZATIONS, NONPROFIT
- WAR
- WORLD HEALTH
News from Afghanistan has tended to focus on suicide bombings, the insurgency, and opium production. Relatively less attention has been paid to socioeconomic developments and how day-to-day life has been affected by the ongoing insecurity and the large development effort. The lack of interest in developments in Afghanistan's health sector is unfortunate because there are some potentially useful lessons to be learned for other countries confronting violence, insecurity, or deep poverty.
Beginning with the Communist takeover in 1978, Afghanistan has endured long years of war that have devastated most parts of the country and left more than 1 million Afghans dead.1 In 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, the under 5-year mortality rate for children was estimated at 257 per 1000 live births,2 and the maternal mortality ratio was estimated at 1600 per 100 000 live births. In mountainous Badakshan province in northeast Afghanistan, the ratio was 6507 …
