The competition started in February 2021 among primary health care organizations of Chui, Naryn, Talas and Issyk-Kul provinces to strengthen the work of the Quality Committees, which ensure qualitative primary health care to the population. 

The competition was held by the Ministry of Health in the framework of the Swiss project "Effective Management and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases in Kyrgyzstan".

In total 28 Family Medicine Centers and Center of General Practice participated in the contest. Based on the results of the competition, 4 Family Medicine Centers and Centers of General Medical Practice will be awarded with the following prizes funded by Switzerland:

• Grand Prize – Niva car for visiting patients;
• 1st place – laptop and 50 tonometers;
• 2nd place – laptop and 30 tonometers;
• 3rd place – laptop and 15 tonometers.

These prizes will be used to improve quality of care in the health facilities. The car will be used for increasing access to the medical services by allowing family doctors to receive patients in remote villages.

The event will be attended by representatives of the Ministry of Health of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Swiss Embassy in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Mandatory Health Insurance Fund, as well as representatives of primary health care facilities and mass media. 

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, supported the home improvements through a 10-year-long partnership with Kyrgyz microfinance organizations. IFC helped the institutions develop an innovative lending product that combined a traditional micro-housing loan with construction-related support, including do-it-yourself home improvement videos, cost estimates for select home improvements, and discounts for quality construction materials. 

The initiative, called the Housing Microfinance Project in the Kyrgyz Republic, helped channel $44.1 million of private funds to 41,505 families, allowing them to construct new homes or renovate existing ones. An additional $15.7 million was channeled to 15,434 families, helping them improve the energy efficiency of their houses, saving them a combined $7.5 million in heating costs. Those 57,000 households were home to 192,000 people.

The project was implemented in partnership with the Swiss Government.

“Improvement of the population’s well-being is what the Swiss development program aspires to achieve in the Kyrgyz Republic,” said Dr. Olivier Bangerter, Swiss Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic. “The housing microfinance project directly contributed to this aim as it reached low-income earners and helped them to fulfil their need of housing.”

Many low-income households struggle to secure loans in the Kyrgyz Republic, where banks are often hesitant to lend to people without substantial collateral. World Bank Group data shows that just 18 percent of people in the Kyrgyz Republic have access to credit while only a handful of lenders provide home improvement loans.

“Housing projects like this can deliver multiple benefits, such as encouraging home ownership, lifting consumption and investment, and, ultimately, helping drive economic growth and development,” said Cassandra Colbert, IFC's Senior Manager for Central Asia. “IFC’s collaboration with local financial institutions to promote housing micro-loans helped thousands of families build new homes or renovate existing ones while also bringing them security and a sense of ownership.”

The initiative is part of a broader IFC efforts to support private sector development in the Kyrgyz Republic and improve access to finance for low-income people.