Maternal and Child Healthcare: Supporting Hospitals and Health in Southern Afghanistan

Current phase: 2008-2011
Project budget: $10.2 million

The goal of this three-year UNICEF undertaking is to reduce maternal and child mortality in the southern region of Afghanistan. The project is designed to expand the coverage of child survival interventions by establishing sustainable outreaches in unserved and underserved communities in the province of Kandahar. It also aims to expand coverage of maternal health services by improving the availability and quality of emergency obstetric care in health facilities in the southern region of Afghanistan.

This project has five major components:

• improving emergency obstetric care and maternal health services at a hospital, the nursing and midwifery school, and the maternal waiting home in Kandahar;
• establishing sustainable outreaches in unreached areas of the province of Kandahar;
• training healthcare facility staff in the provinces of Kandahar and Uruzgan on integrated management of childhood illnesses;
• improving availability and quality of basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care in 37 district hospitals and four provincial hospitals in the southern region; and
• supporting the Ministry of Public Health and the National Midwifery Education and Accreditation Board in increasing the number, quality, and deployment of trained midwives in rural areas.