As per the United Nations’ SDG, ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’, universal health coverage should be attained by 2030. The UN SDG on “Clean Water and Sanitation” contains similar provisions as part of the 2030 Agenda. Afghanistan significantly lags behind in the provision of services and facilities related to healthcare. It has one of the highest rates of infant mortality while a large number of women die from pregnancy-related issues.

To address the challenges, facing Afghanistan in terms of ensuring a healthier population, requires closer synergies among stakeholders engaged in this sector and mobilization of the available resources wisely.

Health and WASH have been a priority area for APWDO since its establishment and we continue to view this area as a top priority. APWDO has been playing its role in this field through various projects, both independently and through the kind support of various donor agencies.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) number 3 emphasizes the need to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all ages by the end of the year 2030. A subpart 1, of the same SDG, relates to the reduction of the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per one hundred thousand live births.

For the accomplishment of such herculean targets, the Citizens’ Charter NPP devised and formulated a plan of action to be executed through the Ministry of Health. This is a three-pronged approach, i.e. MoH needed to work simultaneously and hand-in-hand with non-profit organizations, the

Health Facility Sub-Committees at the Cluster Community Development Councils (CCDCs), and the health committees at the community level. The task of raising awareness among the masses, and urging the families to seek health services for their members was given to the Sub-Committees to be executed in collaboration with CDCs and CCDCs. The SCs were also required to keep track of the usage of these services through constant monitoring. These initiatives vis-à-vis health will be carried out to assess their feasibility and efficacy besides, understanding any operational bottlenecks and flaws of the overall program.

Our organization is committed to promotion of healthy lives of the community members. APWDO is working at the grassroots level in order to impart considerable health benefits to a greater proportion of the community. It has also been involved in the provision of health services irrespective of income disparity, level of education, race, ethnicity, or whether a person is from a local or remote area. Our organization believes, in letter and spirit, that healthy individuals represent a healthy community. If they tend to be healthy, they will be in a good position to cope with disasters that they may be faced at any time in their lives. That is why APWDO’s endeavors are clearly reflected in the projects, tasks, and assignments it has undertaken. Apart from the independent initiatives of APWDO in the realm of Community Health, the following are some of the donor-funded projects that complement the government’s efforts to ensure health services for all of the communities thus containing the problems regarding health issues.

The consortium has an ongoing UK-funded project “Together we can bring Change (TWBC) project in Northern region with focuses on access to WASH services and emergency relief. We have also OCHA -AHF-funded WASH projects in Balkh, Nuristan, and the Eastern region which directly address the barriers and challenges hindering positive outcomes for families affected by sudden natural disasters. We have also implemented several projects across the country including UN OCHA’s projects in Parwan (FSAC’s cash for food), Badghis (Education Cluster’s CBE education to boys and girls), Kunar (ES/NFI’s heating materials, blankets, and winter clothing to affected population), UNICEF’s project (Registration and Facilitation of Nutrition Sensitive cash transfer to PLWs). This experience provides us unique advantage and understanding of the project, communities, current challenges, and flexible methodologies.

More importantly, the consortium has good coordination and collaboration with DFA at national, regional, provincial, and even districts, we are taking part in each WASH cluster meeting and other meetings conducted by UN-OCHA. We have established strong networks with the local community, religious leaders, CDCs, DDAs, CSOs, and CSOs across the country. In light of the sound relationships, we guarantee that we will be able to implement the project without major issues. The following are a few examples of our WASH projects.