• Programme aims to improve health services at secondary hospitals in KP, among other objectives.
• ADB official says Pakistan faces unprecedented flooding, risk of waterborne diseases.
• KP suffers from high infant and maternal mortality rates at 53 per 1,000 live births.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $100 million results-based loan to help strengthen the quality of secondary healthcare in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The programme will help improve the delivery of health services at secondary hospitals by modernising infrastructure and equipment, ensuring clinical protocols, standards, and guidelines are implemented and improving human resources planning and medicine supply chain management, said an ADB press statement received on Thursday.

“While the coronavirus placed an enormous strain on essential health services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and across the country, Pakistan now faces unprecedented flooding exacerbating the risk of waterborne diseases,” said ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Yevgeniy Zhukov.

“This programme will make a key contribution to improving the quality of secondary hospital services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and while it was conceived before the monsoon, it will also help people physically injured by the floods and support efforts to control the spread of infectious diseases,” Zhukov added.

According to the statement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s health sector faces significant challenges, including outdated secondary healthcare facilities and equipment and inadequate quality assurance standards and processes.

The province suffers from high infant and maternal mortality rates, at 53 per 1,000 live births and 165 per 100,000, respectively.

“ADB’s assistance will help sustain health reforms started by the provincial government and strengthen the resilience of the health systems to future pandemics,” said ADB Senior Health Specialist for Central and West Asia Hiddo Huitzing.

“It will benefit an estimated 38 million people, including women in need of maternal healthcare services, and will also create jobs in the health sector,” Huitzing added.

Since 1966, ADB has committed over $37 billion in loans, grants, and other forms of financing to promote inclusive economic growth in Pakistan and improve the country’s infrastructure, energy and food security, transport networks, and social services.

In response to the floods, ADB is preparing a significant response package to support people, livelihoods, and infrastructure immediately and in the long-term.

The bank has already approved a $3 million grant to fund the immediate purchase of relief goods such as food supplies and tents. ADB is also processing a separate counter-cyclical package to help Pakistan weather the impacts of external shocks.