Health Sector Development Program

Ethiopia experiences a heavy burden of diseases with a growing prevalence of communicable infections. Many Ethiopians face high disease morbidity and mortality largely attributable to potentially preventable infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

In response to such prevailing and newly emerging health problems, the Ethiopian Government has developed a 20 year rolling Health Sector Development Program (HSDP) in 1997/8 (1990 EFY) which proposes long-term goals for the sector, and the means to attain them by way of a series of phases.

HSDP aims to develop a health system which provides comprehensive and integrated primary care services, primarily based at community health level facilities. It focuses on communicable diseases, common nutritional disorders, environmental health and hygiene, reproductive health care, immunization, the treatment and control of basic infectious diseases like upper respiratory tract infections, the control of epidemic diseases like malaria, and the control of sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS.

The first and second phase of HSDP was completed in 2002 and 2005 respectively. Currently, the third phase of HSDP covering the period of 2005/6 (1998 EFY) to 2009/10 (2002 EFY) is now in its second year of implementation. In the course of these years, the programme has been continually reviewed through joint exercises as Mid-Term Reviews (MTRs), Final Evaluations and Annual Reviews Meeting (ARMs).

The phases of all HSDP have clear strategies for making targeted interventions against poverty related diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Overall, the project has eight components:

1. Expand primary health care access;
2. Improve the technical quality of primary health care service provision;
3. Expand the supply and productivity of health personnel;
4. Ensure a regular and safe supply of effective, safe, and affordable high quality drugs while improving prescribing behavior by health providers;
5. Improve awareness about personal and environmental hygiene and basic knowledge of common diseases and their causes as well as promote political and community support for health services;
6. Transform the health system into a four-tiered system that is linked, equitably distributed, and managed in a decentralized, participatory, and efficient manner;
7. Monitor improvements in service delivery, quality, and financial performance and evaluate the impact, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of the project's components and
8. Improve financial sustainability.

Ultimately, utilizing HSDP as a tool, improving the health status of the Ethiopian peoples and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the ultimate goal of HSDP.