ssociation for Community Development (ACD) is a NGO registered in Pakistan as a not-for profit professional society with The Registrar Joint Stock Companies and Societies, Government of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, bearing registration No. 1625/5/2922 under the societies Act XXI of 1860. ACD is registered in Afghanistan with the Ministry of Health as Afghan Association for Community Development. The aim of the society is âto improve preventive, promote, curative and rehabilitative health services for the local and refugee population in Pakistanâ. The office is based in Peshawar and the core technical team comprises of public health specialist, a chest physician, a general physician, a microbiologist, and laboratory technicians, supported by finance and administration personnel as well as other support staff. Most of the technical team members have worked with Italian Cooperation for Development (ICD) to provide technical assistance to the TB Control Programme in North West Frontier Province of Pakistan from 1985 to 2000. The technical assistance mainly comprised human resource development; material supply and management, monitoring and evaluation, developing network of peripheral sputum microscopy centers, and quality control of smear microscopy in the province. The Association has been providing technical inputs to the National and Provincial TB control programme, WHO Pakistan, WHO and MOH Afghanistan, UNHCR and national and international NGOs. The Association has been implementing Tuberculosis control programme for Afghan refugees, through 146 basic health clinics, including 48 field laboratories and a central reference laboratory in the entire province of NWFP in partnership with the government as well as national and international NGOs. The Association has been actively involved in developing training and health education materials in local language, and training the program managers, doctors, paramedics and laboratory technicians, community health workers and community volunteers in TB control and DOTS implementation. The Association has also been involved in studying the primary and acquired drug resistance as well as typing the strains of mycobacterium TB in the Pakistani and Afghan TB patients. ACD has access to all camps and health facilities serving the Afghan refugee population. It has a close interaction with the community, has the capacity to communicate in different local languages, and has experience of working in different cultural and traditional settings of the local communities. The provincial TB programme and academic institutions recognize ACD as a technical body. The government of Afghanistan adapted ACDâs developed health education materials for its national program and has developed national postal stamps from it. The German technical cooperation (GTZ) supported TB program in NWFP is utilizing ACD as a resource for building technical capacity of NWFP TB Programme. They have also commissioned ACD to conduct situation analysis of TB laboratories in five districts of NWFP. Pakistan National TB Programme (NTP) included ACD as its partners for quality control of TB laboratories for the Global Fund proposal. A group of national and international NGOs have been using ACD as technical resource. UNHCR and HealthNet International, a Dutch non-governmental organization funds the association. A board of nine people governs the association. It comprises of chest and general physician, public health specialist, journalist, economist and social workers.
