Office of the Delegation of the European Union to Afghanistan on Tuesday announced it would grant nearly five million euros in aid to the Afghanistan ministry of public health to help the country improve the quality of health services.

The money will be spent on some key sectors within the health system including improvement of hospitals, health management and training health personnel.

The EU has said that the health system in Afghanistan has improved in the past decade.

“Access of all Afghans to health services is still a challenge. This mostly affects women and children especially pregnant women and new born who are often precluded from traveling to reach health facility,” said the EU envoy.

Meanwhile, Afghan Minister of Public Health Ferozuddin Feroz said that with the implementation of a three month EU health program, 40 percent of Afghans who have been deprived of decent health services will get access to better facilities.

“The big challenge for the future is to translate these plans into action and to implement what has already been planned, said the GIZ envoy.

Many Afghans across the country especially in remote regions are still deprived of quality health services.

Meanwhile, the Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz, said: “This project is about boosting quality of services including health services in hospitals, training hospital managers and above all it is about increasing the quality of specialty programs of the ministry.”