Health facilities managers are responsible for management and coordination in health facilities; ultimately, they ensure quality health services to people. Unfortunately, the health system of the country lacks skilled managers. To improve this situation, the Ministry of Health designed the Vision on the Health Management System together with the Swiss Embassy.

Main implementing partners of this vision are the Association of Health Managers and the Center for Health System Development and Medical Technologies. They established the Health Managers Forum for a better exchange of experience among peers in applying new approaches in health management. The Swiss Health Management Strengthening Project is providing technical and financial support for all these initiatives.

“The National Forum is an important new platform for discussing health management problems and for developing joint solutions”, said Toktobai Maanayev, Chairperson of the Association of Health Managers’ Board. “This forum became the next step towards improving the health management system. The competence and professionalism of managers is the most important condition to improve medical care”.

“It is a first time that health facility managers across Kyrgyzstan gather together as members of the Association of Health Managers. I am very excited to be part of the Association and participate in its work that can boost the health reform process in the country”, said Talantbek Arstankulov, Director of the Osh oblast clinical hospital.

“For my personal experience of working in a hospital at the start of my career, I have experienced first-hand that health managers are critical to the success. I am very proud that Switzerland can support the Ministry of Health and leaders of hospitals and clinics in this”, said Ambassador Olivier Bangerter.

The National forum for health facility managers is planned to be held regularly.

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.