Afghanistan: Social Audit of Health Services, 2008
Demonstration Social Audit of Health Services in Two Districts of Afghanistan, 2008
Among the many challenges of Afghanistan’s health system is lack of reliable information. Rapid shifts in the security situation, scarcity of funding and skilled human resources, and competing claims on the allegiance of the population make it all the more important for planners to have good evidence on which to make decisions.
Health authorities need to know who is and is not being reached by the existing services, how they are performing on the ground, what the experience of health service users is, how satisfied they are, which services need fixing the most, and much more. The only reliable way of getting the answers to such questions is by going to the communities and asking. This project demonstrates how these questions can be answered by community social audits of the health services
The Ministry of Public Health chose two districts with reasonably good security for the demonstration.
| Field workers interviewing Afhgan women |
CIET and its Afghan counterparts surveyed some 3283 households, including 2845 recent health service users, and interviewed key informants in a random sample of communities in the two districts. They returned key findings from the household survey to separate male and female focus groups in the participating communities for their interpretation and recommendations.
