Swiss-Tajik Cooperation: Nearly 20 years of Primary Healthcare Development

Universal Health Coverage is a rallying call for the strengthening of health systems that deliver basic, quality care to the most vulnerable populations. Photo credit: Thomas Schuppisser Two long-standing Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation projects that are implemented by Swiss TPH, Project Sino and the Medical Education Reform Project, have come to a close after nearly 20 successful years of primary healthcare development. The projects represent a sustainable partnership between Switzerland and Tajikistan through continued collaboration and improvement, and serve as a model for other health sector reform initiatives. With high levels of poverty and two thirds of its people living in rural areas, Tajikistan's primary healthcare system and the quality education of its health workers are essential to make healthcare more accessible. To address this, the Enhancing Primary Health Care Services Project (Project Sino) and the Medical Education Reform Project (MEP) have been committed to the pursuit of Univer­sal Health Coverage (UHC) through develop­ment of the health system and medical educa­tion reform for nearly 20 years. "Tajikistan has made important progress to move away from the centralised and specialist-focused healthcare system that existed in the Soviet era, towards a family-medicine oriented primary healthcare system. There is now a basis upon which to build, and the people of Tajikistan can start to envisage the right to basic healthcare," said Helen Prytherch, Project Sino Director and Head of Health Systems Support unit at Swiss TPH.