Infant mortality in rural areas is 50 percent higher than in urban centers and many children die from easily preventable diseases. Poor health is a major cause of poverty in rural areas. Rural folk are four times more likely to get sick than urban dwellers.
Malnutrition affects three times more children under four in the countryside than in the towns.
It will also train 7,500 health care providers, mostly women. At the district level, the project will also strengthen surgery, emergency, obstetrical, gynecological and diagnostic services. A second component will strengthen the institutional capacity for public health care by coordinating and standardizing management systems, training programs and innovative financing approaches. It will provide laboratories for food testing and training for epidemiologists working in provincial preventive centers. In addition, the project includes the support to free health cards to 800,000 poor people and a pilot scheme to develop sustainable rural community health insurance.