Resource Type: Brief
Authors: Jenna Wright
Published: May 2015

Resource Description:

An Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) can be defined as the package of services that the government is providing or is aspiring to provide to its citizens in an equitable manner.

This country snapshot is one in a series of 24 snapshots looking at the governance dimensions of Essential Packages of Health Services in the Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Death priority countries. The snapshot explores several important dimensions of the EPHS in the country, such as how government policies contribute to the service coverage, population coverage, and financial coverage of the package.

Mozambique has not yet adopted a formal EPHS, but vaguely committed to developing one in a recent policy document. Mozambique’s Health Sector Strategic Plan (Plano Estratégico do Sector da Saúde, or PESS) is the policy document intended to guide the health sector towards universal health coverage through government and donor cooperation. In 2013 the government of Mozambique published its third PESS, covering the period 2014–2019. The document explained that the National Health Service has not yet adopted an integrated EPHS. Instead, vertical programs financed through donors deliver the program’s specific package of services through nonprofit facilities and public sector facilities, resulting in a lack of integration in the provision of an essential package of services.