You can download the full report here.
Pakistan’s health system rests on two financing channels that are not interchangeable. Public budgets are personnel-heavy and fixed, financing salaries, facilities and routine operating costs. Official Development Assistance is flexible and commodity-heavy, financing the vaccines, diagnostics, supply chains, surveillance and specialist staff that vertical disease programmes depend on. With global ODA now contracting sharply and grants falling to just 4% of total flows to Pakistan, the consequences are functional rather than fiscal. The 2025 USAID suspension closed over 60 facilities and disrupted care for 1.7 million people; a USD 27.2 million Global Fund reduction halved TB monitoring in two provinces and placed treatment for over 42,000 HIV-positive patients at risk. These are not system-wide collapses but precise ruptures in the functions external financing has long underwritten.
This report maps how the contraction is transmitting through the system and sets out a structured transition agenda for federal and provincial governments built around foundations, response and delivery.
Authors: Behzad Taimur, Shahab Siddiqi and Syeda Farwa Qamar Jaffri
Research: Asbah Asif
Review: Umar Nadeem
Design: Maryam Afeefa
Behzad Taimur
Behzad Taimur is a Senior Manager at Tabadlab, with over 11 years of experience in programme management and public policy. Behzad leads the health practice, focusing on immunisation, MNCHN, TB, PHC-UHC, health tech, and financing. He leverages his extensive background in programme management and policy to drive impactful work across Pakistan's health sector. He holds a Master of Public Administration and an MA in Communication and Development Studies from Ohio University, along with a BA (Hons.) in Mass Communication from Beaconhouse National University.
Shahab Siddiqi is Director, Human Capital at Tabadlab. He has over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of policy, systems design and public engagement, and leads portfolios spanning policy and regulatory reform, delivery chain design, strategic communications and behavioural science. He translates complex policy goals into data-driven narratives that move decision-makers, shape public discourse and shift behaviours.
Syeda Farwa Qamar Jaffri
Farwa Qamar is an Associate at Tabadlab, specialising in health policy and governance. Farwa brings strong analytical depth, political sensitivity, and a grounded understanding of Pakistan's governance and health systems to her work at Tabadlab. She leverages her expertise in political economy analysis and stakeholder consultations to drive impactful research and policy work. She holds a BSc in Economics from Bahria University.
