PESHAWAR, Jan 16: The NWFP will launch a five-year maternal and neo-natal health project in collaboration with foreign donor agencies and has urged donors to rehabilitate its basic health infrastructure in remote areas.

An official said: "The Rs9 billion project will be funded by foreign donor agencies and will be launched in July 2005. It will be executed jointly by a consortium led by the British Council in collaboration with the health department from 2005-2010," said the official.

He said that a concept paper for the plan's execution was being prepared. The official said that Health Minister Inayatullah Khan had urged the donor agencies to adopt a participatory approach and provide technical support to make primary healthcare facilities functional.

He said that the minister had asked health planners to focus on producing local experts and improve the health infrastructure to provide better maternal and neo-natal health services in remote areas," he said, quoting the minister.

Official said that most mothers and new born babies suffered various problems in rural areas because of the absence of basic health infrastructure. The NWFP has 364 dispensaries, 82 rural health centres and 785 basic health units, but these facilities offer no help to people because most of these centres are either under-staffed or ill-equipped or were located in inaccessible places.

Another official said that buildings of more than 100 health facilities were in a dilapidated condition and needed urgent repair to make them functional again. The minister, he said, had also called for providing incentives to the staff working in peripheries to ensure stable health service in such areas.

He also stressed the need for a public awareness campaign in this regard. The project, the official said, would be implemented through the Health Sector Research and Reform Unit.