Resource Type: Technical Brief
Authors: Ethiopia Health Sector Financing Reform/Health Finance and Governance Project
Published: June 2018

Resource Description: Ethiopia has made important strides toward improving the health status of its population as well as in advancing health sector strategies and health care financing (HCF) reforms. The 20-year national Health Sector Development Program (HSDP), implemented in four five-year plans, began in 1997 and was completed in 2015. a policy implementation document, it guided the development of subnational plans and set the overarching framework under which the health sector operated, including principles of government leadership, responsiveness to community health needs, and comprehensive coverage of priority health sector issues. Implementation of the Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) began in 2015/16, with ambitious goals to improve equity, coverage, and utilization of essential health services; improve quality of health care; and enhance the implementation capacity of the health sector at all levels of the system.2 To support HCF reform under these comprehensive plans, Ethiopia has also implemented an HCF strategy. The strategy articulated several HCF reforms to increase funding for health, enhance efficiency in the use of available resources, improve the quality and coverage of health services, ensure equity, and promote sustainability.3 A revised strategy, for 2017–2025, builds upon the successes and challenges of its predecessor in accelerating Ethiopia’s progress toward attaining universal health coverage through primary health care. The revised strategy is being used to develop planning and other documents though it has not yet been formally endorsed by the Council of Ministers. It is intended to lead to sustainable HCF that will enable the provision of proven essential health services to all segments of the population, without them incurring financial hardship in accessing services.