The Kyrgyz Republic, as well as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, is member of the Swiss-led voting group at the Bretton Woods Institutions. Likewise, in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Switzerland leads a constituency including the Kyrgyz Republic. Switzerland shares the political responsibility to support and assist this constituency country. In the Central Asia region, the Kyrgyz Republic, as well as Tajikistan is a priority country for Swiss cooperation.

A SDC/seco Regional Mid-Term Programme has been developed for 2002-2006 for the Central Asia region, in which Health has been identified as a priority domain of intervention, where SDC aims at ensuring equal access to basic, good quality and adequate public health care for the whole population. SDC interventions in the Health sector focus on the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan. In the Kyrgyz Republic, Health is one the four priority domains of intervention of SDC - the other being Governance, Development of Private Sector and Management of Natural Resources.

SDC’s strategy consists in supporting Health Sector Reform, including restructuring and rehabilitation of medical facilities and promotion of a decentralised preventive health care system; in addressing specific communicable diseases of poverty; and in emphasising health education and capacity building.

Since its independence in 1991, the Kyrgyz Republic has faced many difficulties resulting from the transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market economy. The need for a Reform of the Health sector has been acknowledged, and a national health care reform programme, the so-called MANAS Programme, was designed in 1994 with the support of international agencies, especially WHO, WB and seco. The MANAS Programme, formally adopted in 1996, provides a coherent policy framework and statement of priorities for personal health care services, emphasising the need to re-orient the system towards primary health care.

Since 1999, SDC supports the MANAS Programme in a comprehensive way in one pilot oblast (Naryn), in collaboration with other key agencies such as WHO and the WB. The project aims at restructuring the health care delivery system in the oblast, according to national guidelines, at improving infrastructure and equipement of essential hospitals, at improving primary health care services and at developing health promotion and prevention.

Beside this major contribution to health sector reform, SDC is also addressing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and particularly AIDS, by supporting a Center in Osh, which conducts prevention programmes in a region where the AIDS prevalence is alarming due to drug circulation from Afghanistan. A partnership between Kyrgyz and Swiss hospitals enrich the programme with essential collaboration at bilateral level.