Health in Ethiopia

Health in Ethiopia has improved markedly in the last decade, with government leadership playing a key role in mobilizing resources and ensuring that they are used effectively. A central feature of the sector is the priority given to the Health Extension Program, which delivers cost-effective basic services that enhance equity and provide care to millions of women, men and children. Ethiopia has demonstrated that low-income countries can achieve improvements in health and access to services if policies, programmes and strategies are underpinned by ingenuity, innovativeness, political will and sustained commitment at all levels. An example is the development and rapid implementation of the Ethiopian Health Extension Programme.

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of over 94.1 million people. The country introduced a federal government structure in 1994 composed of nine Regional States: Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Benishangul Gumuz, Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Gambela, Tigray and Harrari and two city Administrations (Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa). The Regional States are administratively divided into 78 Zones and 710 Woredas.

Ethiopia experiences a heavy burden of disease mainly attributed to communicable infectious diseases and nutritional deficiencies. Shortage and high turnover of human resource and inadequacy of essential drugs and supplies have also contributed to the burden. However, there has been encouraging improvements in the coverage and utilization of the health service over the periods of implementation of Health Sector Development Plan (HSDP).

HSDP constitutes the health chapter of the national poverty reduction strategy and aims to increase immunization coverage and decrease under-five mortality at large. The health service currently reaches about 72% of the population and The Federal Ministry of Health aims to reach 85% of the population by 2009 through the Health Extension Program (HEP) [1]. The HEP is designed to deliver health promotion, immunization and other disease prevention measures along with a limited number of high-impact curative interventions.

The Government of Ethiopia follows a market–based and agriculture-led industrialization economic policy for the development and management of the economy. There have been a number of policy initiatives and measures taken in these directions which included privatization of state enterprises and rationalization of government regulation which the process is still ongoing. Ethiopia's economy depends heavily on the agricultural sector. Agriculture accounts for 83.4% of the labour force, about 43.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 80% of exports . The regular droughts combined with poor cultivation practices, make Ethiopia's economy very vulnerable to climatic changes. Despite these obvious challenges, Ethiopia has shown an impressive economic growth over the last seven years, although the per capita of 235 USD remain below the Sub Saharan average. But, Poverty Head Count Index has declined from the 1996 level of 45.5% to 32.7% in 2007/08. The reduction in poverty has been more pronounced in rural areas than in urban areas. The overall economic dependency ratio for the country is estimated at 93 dependents per 100 persons in the working age group of 15–64 years. During the SDPRP I period (2002/03 - 2004/05), real GDP grew on average by about 5 percent per annum. However, during the first three years of PASDEP period the country registered an average of double digit economic growth of 11.8% per annum with steady and strong positive performance in real GDP . This steady growth marks a significant progress, not only compared to the 7% annual growth target that would be required to meet the MDGs, but also to realize Ethiopia’s objective to become a middle-income country in the next two decades. Another important feature of the economic reform in Ethiopia is equal opportunity for women in the participation of the economic development of the country which is enshrined in the constitution. The Ethiopian Constitution recognizes the principle of equality of access to economic opportunities, employment and property ownership for women. Following this, the government has formulated a national gender policy, which recognizes equality between the sexes and sets up mechanisms for the improvement of women’s conditions, such as the establishment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The main strategies employed to implement the national policy include gender mainstreaming in sector and development programs, advocacy and capacity-building initiatives.

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