Taliban Unveils Five-Year Health Strategy, Targets Self-Reliant Healthcare System

DID Press: Taliban officials have launched a five-year national health strategy aimed at strengthening Afghanistan’s healthcare system, improving medical services and building a more self-reliant public health sector.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Mawlawi Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Affairs, described the strategy as a major step toward improving the country’s healthcare system.

He said Afghanistan’s health sector had been neglected for years, claiming that not a single MRI machine had been added to the country’s hospitals during the previous two decades, and stressed that years of conflict have left the country with an urgent need for stronger healthcare services.

At the same event, Public Health Minister Mawlawi Noor Jalal Jalali said the five-year strategy was designed to bring fundamental reforms to the health sector.

According to him, the plan focuses on improving transparency, expanding healthcare services, supporting domestic medical production, strengthening the skills of healthcare workers, training medical professionals inside Afghanistan and encouraging Afghan specialists living abroad to return.

Jalali said the strategy’s ultimate objective is to improve the quality of healthcare services, establish a self-reliant health system and provide standardized medical care for all citizens.Despite the launch of the strategy, health experts say its success will depend on effective implementation and structural reforms.

They note that shortages of advanced medical equipment, deteriorating healthcare facilities, limited sustainable funding and the continued emigration of medical professionals remain major challenges that could undermine the plan without concrete action and transparent oversight.