The New York Times reports on Médecins Sans Frontières’ findings on health care in Afghanistan, while Devex features an interview with USAID Assistant Administrator Larry Sampler, who discusses U.S. aid to the country.

New York Times: Aid Group Sees Daunting Obstacles to Health Care for Afghans
“The patients in the four hospitals run by Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan are the lucky ones, by all accounts, having arrived at well-stocked facilities that maintain international standards with high-quality free care. But when Doctors Without Borders, a French medical aid organization also known as Médecins Sans Frontières, surveyed 800 of those patients last year, the results showed a dismaying picture of unmet health care needs…” (Nordland, 2/25).

Devex: Larry Sampler on USAID in Afghanistan
“Creating and maintaining a new government in such a challenging environment as Afghanistan comes with certain tradeoffs for U.S. aid. That’s why the U.S. Agency for International Development has been compelled to permit some ‘degradation of pure effectiveness’ that comes with host government capacity building in the push for ‘localization,’ Assistant Administrator Larry Sampler said in an exclusive interview with Devex…” (Igoe, 2/25).