The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has been awarded a
grant from the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan to
set up a national evaluation system to monitor and assess
the nation's health care system. In addition, the Johns
Hopkins researchers will assist the Afghan government in
developing a health care finance system to sustain health
services in the future.
The three-year, $3.9 million grant, which begins this
month, is part of $60 million in development aid provided
to Afghanistan by the World Bank.
Currently, several nongovernmental organizations
provide health services under performance-based contracts
to 13 of Afghanistan's 32 provinces. The evaluation system
will independently measure the progress of these
organizations and the Afghan Ministry of Health to make
sure they are providing adequate health services.
"The evaluation system we are developing will help
ensure that the nation's health needs and goals are met,
particularly the needs of the vulnerable populations, such
as women and children," said David Peters, principal
investigator and assistant professor in the school's
Department of International
Health. "We are devising a balanced scorecard to see
how well basic health services are being provided.
Eventually, the Afghan health ministry will be able to
monitor and evaluate its own progress as it expands health
care throughout the country."
The Johns Hopkins researchers also will develop and
evaluate a system to finance Afghanistan's health care in
the future. The health financing interventions developed
will be tested in the 13 provinces under the
performance-based contracts.
In addition to Peters, the research team from the
School of Public Health will include Gilbert Burnham,
co-director of the Center for International Emergency,
Disaster and Refugee Studies; Hugh Waters, assistant
professor, International Health; Stan Becker, professor,
Population and Family Health Sciences; and research
associates Anbarasi Edward Raj and Walt Jones,
International Health. Ayan Ahmed Noor, associate project
manager and field manager for evaluation and data
collection, and Laura Steinhardt, field manager for the
community health finance initiative, will be based in
Kabul.
The School of Public Health also will collaborate with
researchers from the Indian Institute of Health Management
Research, led by S.D. Gupta, a graduate of Johns
Hopkins.
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