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

Resource Description: Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s (SNNP) region is one of nine regions in Ethiopia. It is located in the southwestern part of the country. It is divided into 15 administrative zones, 164 woredas (133 rural and 27 urban), four of which are special woredas. According to Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency projections, SNNP has a population of almost 20 million people, the majority of whom are farmers.

In 1998, the Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia approved a health care and financing strategy that calls for increasing financial resources available for the health sector. Following the strategy and the prototype Health Service Delivery and Administration (HSDA) proclamation developed by the federal government, the SNNP regional government put in place several legal frameworks, including: the SNNP Regional State Proclamation No. 84/2004, Regulation No. 46/2005, and the HSDA Directive, August 2010. These edicts provide clear operating procedures for health service delivery and administration. In addition, implementation guidelines were issued in 2006 and updated in 2007 to further elaborate the implementation procedures enumerated in the legal frameworks.

The regional proclamation and HSDA directive provided an opportunity to launch health care financing reforms and allowed for the establishment of health insurance with a specific focus on community-based health insurance (CBHI) at the woreda level.