Assistance for "Sustainable Primary Health Care in Rural Areas, Mongolia"

May 26, 2004

On May 26 (Wednesday), the Government of Japan and the United Nations (UN) decided to extend assistance of a total of 658,000 US dollars through the Trust Fund for Human Security for the programme "Sustainable Primary Health Care in Rural Areas, Mongolia" to be implemented by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
This programme, a geographical expansion of the "Promoting Sustainable Primary Health Care and Infectious Disease Prevention in Mongolia" program implemented by UNICEF from January 2001 to December 2002, aims to support the establishment of Revolving Drug Funds in four selected rural aimags or provinces in Mongolia. These will ease the burden on community members suffering from increasing medical costs caused by the precarious medical insurance system and shortage of medicines by controlling the retail prices of medicine at an optimum level, as well as teaching fund management skills to community members.
This project is expected to enhance the weak retail system for medicine in Mongolia, and in turn improve the health conditions of community members.

(Note)

Japan established the Trust Fund for Human Security in the United Nations Secretariat in March 1999, with total contributions of 25.9 billion yen (approximately US$ 227 million) up to the present. The Trust Fund has assisted numerous projects of UN agencies that address various threats to human life, livelihood and dignity, from the perspective of Human Security.
The Revolving Drug Fund provides financial support for each amiag or province for purchasing medicine in order to stabilize the price and supply of medicine. To date, UNICEF has established the Fund in 6 amiags (provinces) and 99 soums (districts).

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