District Health Councils as local multisectoral platform to address health issues

 

​In-country activities


District Health Councils as local multisectoral platform to address health issues

(within SDC funded Health Facilities Autonomy project in Kyrgyzstan)


Elvira Muratalieva, Embassy of Switzerland in the Kyrgyz Republic




In the framework of the Health Facility Autonomy project, a District Health Council was established as multisectoral platform to address regional health issues in each of the pilot areas in the targeted  Issyk-Kul oblast in 2016. The mission of the council is to solve health related problems through multisectoral approach. The council consists of local authorities representing the Kyrgyz Government (line ministries) at district level, civil society organizations including Village Health Committees, local municipalities and health facilities.

Within the Health Facility Autonomy project, focusing on strengthening autonomy of the health facilities and decentralizing the health sector management, it is planned to shift the decision-making power in the health sector from the central bodies to the districts. The health governance systems at oblast and district levels are in great need for support in terms of decision-making capacity and power. Non-health sector members of the council receive additional support to address population health related issues and effective way of solving them.

The members of the District Health Councils are well aware that nearly 70% of the health issues concern other sectors while only 30% are addressed by the health sector. Having this in mind, the councils are very active in identifying the health determinants of the districts and in solving them in partnership with  concerned structures. In this case, the Village Health Committees play a key role to voice the needs of population during the meetings of the councils.

As a result after two years, the District Health Councils are now  able to address several health related problems such as (i) support the family doctors in terms of transportation to reach the remote villages and serve the population; (ii) in 7 villages the medical points have been renovated by local municipalities; (iii) special reproduction health courses have been introduced at high schools; (iv) the drinking water has been provided in 3 new settlements and the local municipalities allocates budget for health determinants in their budgets. In addition to this, the meetings of the District Health Councils are used as a platform to increase accountability of the health facilities, where they report on their work and local health statistics on half-yearly basis.


The Ministry of Health is very much supportive of this initiative and intends to scale up this experience to other regions. This will help the Ministry to delegate some functions to the council and decentralize the health sector management. At the same time, addressing health issues through multisectoral approach is more effective and considerably increases the health gains.