Health systems in action: Tajikistan: 2022 edition

Overview

Tajikistan’s health system is centrally organized and ownership and administration of the majority of health facilities have remained almost exclusively in the public sector. A Basic Benefit Package (BBP) of publicly paid health services was introduced in 2005 and revised in 2007. By 2022, the programme had been extended to cover 31 of the country’s 65 districts.

However, the largest sources of funding for health are out-of-pocket payments from patients (both official and unofficial), accounting for 71.2% of health spending in 2019. Given the country’s comparatively low GDP, health spending per capita is the lowest in the WHO European Region, but public spending on health has increased over the past few years.

Life expectancy has improved in recent years and is higher than the Central Asian average. High blood pressure, poor nutrition and high blood sugar are major risk factors contributing to poor health in Tajikistan, although overweight and obesity are less of a concern than in many other countries in the WHO European Region. Excess mortality is estimated to have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also disrupted access to essential health services. Rates of antimicrobial resistance in the country are unknown, but there has been a National AMR Action Plan since 2018.