Celebrating Public Health Achievements in Northern Pakistan

Our USAID Integrated Health Systems Strengthening and Service Delivery (IHSS-SD) Activity held a conference in Peshawar, Pakistan on November 30 to share results from our work in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. Since 2018, the Activity has partnered with the local government to strengthen seven secondary care hospitals to improve maternal, newborn, and child health services; strengthen the capacity of 4,800 health providers to deliver higher quality services; improve access to health services for people living in remote and hard to reach areas; and improve the readiness of the provincial and district health system to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and future global health security risks.

KP Director General Health Shaheen Afridi noted that, “Health system strengthening does not work by focusing on one intervention at a time and expecting it to be sustainable. Sustainability is the most critical challenge…the IHSS-SD Activity was designed in a way that it worked very closely with the [Department of Health] at all levels…so that these interventions can be integrated into the system.”

Also speaking at the conference were USAID Acting Health Office Director Kayt Erdahl; KP Secretary Health Amer Sultan Tareen; IHSS-SD Activity Chief of Party Nabeela Ali; and JSI Senior Advisor Nancy Brady.