An Afghan government framework for essential health care, ratified by the Ministry of Public Health in March 2003 in response to the near-total collapse of the country's health system after decades of war and among the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. The Basic Package of Health Services defines a minimum set of essential services, covering maternal and child health, immunization, communicable disease treatment, mental health, disability and supply of essential medicines, delivered mainly through contracts with non-governmental organizations rather than direct government provision, a design chosen specifically because it could be scaled up quickly across a country with limited state capacity. Financed chiefly by the World Bank, the European Union and the United States Agency for International Development, the BPHS more than doubled the number of functioning health facilities and measurably increased rural Afghans' access to care, skilled birth attendance, availability of essential medicines and a functioning health information system, becoming the framework later paired with an Essential Package of Hospital Services for higher-level care.
Facts
Sponsoring BodyMinistry of Public Health of Afghanistan, reconstructed after the fall of the Taliban with World Health Organization and other international technical partners and donors. 1 Target PopulationThe Afghan population, especially women and children. 1 Health GoalReduce high levels of mortality and morbidity by improving access to quality emergency and routine reproductive and child health services and increasing coverage and quality of services to prevent and treat communicable disease and malnutrition. 1 Geographic ScopeAfghanistan, delivered at every level of the national health system. 1 Classification
Program KindVaccination or Immunization Program 1 Connections
Delivers Practice
Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Asia, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ministry of Public Health (Afghanistan)
WikipediaThe ministry section, reconstruction paragraph
Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan the Ministry of Health, along with the World Health Organization and other technical partners and donors reconstructed the health sector.
The ministry section, goal paragraph
The goal of the ministry is to develop the health sector to improve the health of the people of Afghanistan, especially women and children, through implementing the basic package of health services (BPHS) and the essential package of hospital services (EPHS) as the standard, agreed-upon minimum of health care to be provided at each level of the health system.
Program classification, entity description sentence
The Basic Package of Health Services defines a minimum set of essential services, covering maternal and child health, immunization, communicable disease treatment, mental health, disability and supply of essential medicines, delivered mainly through contracts with non-governmental organizations rather than direct government provision, a design chosen specifically because it could be scaled up quickly across a country with limited state capacity.
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