Following the definition provided by the Word Health Organization (WHO), LH recognizes health (which is a fundamental human right and an important index of human development) as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Health plays a role in the attainment of SDGs by profoundly affecting key factors e.g. education and income-generating capacity. Nutrition and population are concepts interlinked with health. Good health entails the intake of adequate and nutritious food and poor nutrition can lead to reduced immunity, increased susceptibility to disease, impaired physical and mental development, and reduced productivity. Similarly, population also influences health through a number of ways i.e. affecting health resources, water and sanitation facilities and food availability. LH recognizes that, these three sub-sectors are intricately related to each other, and determines to approach the sector with a coordinated framework that will allow the actions in one sub-sector to complement the actions in the others, towards achieving sustainable improvement in health, nutrition, and reproductive health, including family planning, particularly of the constituents.
Considering the situation of the constituents, for reaching the above mentioned goal of the sector, LH identified six (6) major challenges i.e. i) Availability, accessibility and utilization of STI/STD/HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services for the most at risk constituents; ii) accessibility and utilization of the primary health care services, by the public and private service providers, for the constituents, in both rural and urban areas) availability of quality health care services at affordable prices for the people living in the ‘hard to reach areas’; iv) availability and utilization of facilities essential for sound and safe delivery, for the targeted constituents; v) improvement of nutritional status of children and women; and vi) accessibility to healthcare services for the PWDs. Under this SP, LH will initiate the following strategic interventions for overcoming the above challenges.
- Making STI/STD/HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services available for the high risk constituents by expanding service outlets of LH, and by strengthening networks with other public/private service providers.
- Raising awareness among the high risk constituents about their situation and about the existing health services made available for them by LH and other service providers.
- Influencing MoHFW for setting and establishing appropriate service standards for the centers under primary and secondary health care systems, both in rural and urban setting.
- Establishing the mechanism of social accountability for ensuring accountability of the MoHFW health service delivery systems at primary and secondary levels[1], and of the urban primary health care system (coordinated by MOLGRD&C and MOHFW) to the citizens, considering the aspects of access, equity, gender equality and ethical conduct.
- Facilitating and strengthening MoHFW’s engagement with the NGO and private sector, based on comparative advantage.
- Influencing legislature for inclusion of the health consumers’ rights in the Consumer Rights Protection Act (2009).
- Extending the service outlets of LH in the ‘hard to reach areas’ for ensuring quality health care services for the poor at affordable prices.
- Strengthening initiatives for drag control, treatment and harm reduction for the drag users, through extension of LH’s facilities and awareness raising.
- Raising awareness among the pregnant and lactating women on the importance of ANC and PNC services for improving service-seeking behavior.
- Making the pregnant and lactating women, along with the household members, aware of the basic information on nutrition and nutritious food.
- Supporting the PWDs to overcome the physical, psychological, social and economic barriers for fully accessing to healthcare services.
- Strengthening community support and involvement to obtain better results in implementation of health programs
- Supporting the acid survivors with psycho-social counseling and reintegration services; and strengthening the network of the Acid survivors to lead the process of asserting the rights of the victims of acid violence
[1]i.e. ward level health facilities, Union Health and Family Welfare Centers, Upazila Health Complexes, and district hospitals