Oxfam: Access to basic health care

What we do

Azerbaijan programme overview

Oxfam is improving the provision of primary health care in 31 poor rural communities. Communities are helped to run and finance primary health care schemes themselves, with members of the scheme paying a small monthly fee to receive treatment and basic drugs. Where needed, we rehabilitate or construct health clinics and improve water and sanitation systems in the village.

Through our lobbying work on health, we have already achieved amendments in the law regarding health issues and vulnerable people.


Supporting disabled peopleThe Blind People’s Association (BPA) runs a ‘talking library’ in Baku which lends newspapers and books, recorded on tape, to around 4,500 blind and visually impaired people. Oxfam supports BPA, and together we are calling for better education and improved economic and social rights for disabled people by influencing the government and the media.

Making A Living

In the mountainous regions and central plains of Azerbaijan job opportunities are limited and transport links are scarce. Finance for Development, supported by Oxfam, provides poor people with low interest loans to help them start-up or develop small businesses - for example carpentry or hairdressing. Credit groups are trained in good management, and business and bookkeeping skills. Finance for Development is working with 450 credit groups in northwest Azerbaijan.

Oxfam funded a survey and the findings led us to focus on improving and expanding leather production and dairy produce. We are supporting local production such as agricultural producers, dairy producers and leather producers, and helping them create workers’ unions.


Keeping institutions accountableGovernments receiving assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have to prepare ‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers’ (PRSPs) to hold them accountable for how they plan to spend funds. Oxfam is supporting civil society and the government to provide a fair poverty reduction strategy for Azerbaijan. We are encouraging local municipalities and communities to participate in the implementation of the plan and to monitor the quality of the activities.

We are also working with the government and local municipalities to develop and strengthen local self-governance and encourage institutional reform in 19 municipalities. Municipalities were established seven years ago, but these local authorities lack the capacity and resources to serve community needs. We are strengthening their skills in strategic planning, programme and policy development, needs assessments, and monitoring.

We are working to improve the transparency of government budgeting processes so that communities are given free access to budget information. Oxfam is designing specific mechanisms for direct public participation in budgeting processes at the local level. Municipality budget tracking is being carried out in 13 municipalities. As a result of our work, budget information was shown to the public in 2004 – state and local authority budgets were shared in public hearings and newspapers - a first in the history of post-Soviet Azerbaijan. We are currently analysing the state health care budget. We are also conducting gender analysis of the current budget at different levels to determine how resources can be shared equally between women and men.


Disaster PreparednessIn Azerbaijan, which is at risk from earthquakes and flooding, Oxfam is strengthening its staff team to be able to effectively respond to humanitarian need. We are also in discussion with the deputy Prime Minister’s office about how to increase the country’s preparedness.

What We Do

Armenia Programme Overview

Health for all

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia’s state health service has been severely under-funded. Communities have been left without essential treatment, drugs and safe water.

Our partner organisation, Support to Communities, is assisting communities to run and finance primary health care schemes in 128 villages.

Members of the scheme pay a small quarterly fee to receive basic treatment, free drugs, and regular visits from doctors and medical specialists. Where needed, our partner rehabilitates water systems at the clinics.

Together with our partners, we are seeking to influence the national health policies of the government so that everyone has access to affordable primary health care. We are calling on the government to incorporate this health scheme model into the national health strategy.

Through our partner, Future Generation, we are also providing sexual health education for more than 5,000 teenagers and adults, to increase awareness of HIV Aids and sexually transmitted infections.

Disability Rights

Disabled people in Armenia often face discrimination and isolation from society. It’s typical for them to be kept ‘out of sight’. Oxfam supports Kamk and Korov, an organisation that runs a theatre company for deaf youth and is working with the government and media to raise awareness of deaf people’s rights.

Together with Kamk and Korov and our partner Bridge of Hope, we are promoting equal opportunities and lobbying for disabled children to be integrated into mainstream schools. We have already achieved this in four schools in the capital Yerevan. Through their direct work with disabled people, and their advocacy work with decision makers, these two organisations are improving the lives of around 28,000 people –disabled people and their families.