National Health Policy – National Health Plan 2007 – 2011.

The National Health Policy is a national policy with a multi-sectoral approach. The overall goal of the Policy is to improve the health status of an increasing number of citizens, on an equal basis through expanded access to effective basic health care, backed by adequate referral services and resources. The National Health Plan provides the strategy for implementation of the National Health Policy. The timeframe of the Plan is 5 years between 2007 and 2011.
The health and nutrition status of all citizens will be improved by reducing malnutrition among infants, children and pregnant/lactating mothers in order to reduce maternal, infant, and under-5 mortality rates. Capacity building of nutrition officers will be enhanced. Feeding programs will be carried out for infants and young children. Furthermore access to safe drinking water will be enhanced.
The National Health Plan determines a road map on Basic Package of Health Services, Human Resources for Health, Infrastructure Development and Support Systems. Access to basic health care of acceptable quality will be expanded by ensuring the availability of funds at county level to support the continuous delivery of basic services, improving the availability of essential medicines and other critical health commodities, rehabilitating health facilities in under-served areas, upgrading the skills of health workers, including nutrition officers and stationing them to the most needed areas, improving the information base and monitoring and evaluation capacity, and improving availability of safe water and sanitary facilities. An equitable, affordable, and integrated Basic Package Health Services will be provided to all communities and persons, especially to the poor, to the vulnerable, and to women and children. The health sector will be reformed to achieve improved health and social welfare status and equity in health. This Policy will be integrated into other sector policies in the fields of water, safety, information, sanitation, housing/shelter, education, infrastructure, and human rights. Research and Development studies will be improved by the Health Research Division under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The Health Management Information System will be strengthened in order to better collect, organize and maintain relevant data in a timely way. Furthermore Early Warning Systems will be established for epidemic response and disease control.
Effective emergency preparedness and response against epidemics will be conducted at local and central level. Health workers and local managers must be prepared to identify epidemic threats and react in a timely and effective manner.
A Program Coordination Team will be established by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to coordinate partners and resources for the implementation of the National Health Policy and Plan. A comprehensive system for monitoring and evaluation will be put in place based on the outlined policy targets and agreed set of indicators for the effective implementation of the National Health Plan.