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Ethiopia renews its commitment to Universal Health Coverage

The Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia renews its commitment to actions towards universal health coverage (UHC). The re-definition of the Essential Health Service Packages (EHSP), which the Global Health Priorities Research Group is involved in, is defined as one of the most important steps forward.

Minister of Health Ethiopia, Amir Aman
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Minister of Health Ethiopia, Amir Aman

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Global Health Priorities Research Group is (as a part of the Gates funded project "Disease Control Priorities - Ethiopia") working closely with The Federal Ministry of Health to build local capacity in health care priorities. The overall goal is to achieve a fair scale up of publicly funded services in a cost-effective manner. 

– The renewed commitment from Dr. Amir Aman and The Federal Ministry of Health is a clear sign that Ethiopia is keeping up the momentum in increasing the access to health care, says professor and leader of the DCP-E project Ole Frithjof Norheim. 

Progress towards UHC – supported by the Global Health Priorities Research Group

Ethiopia is making promising progress towards UHC. Established on the gains already made, Ethiopia is taking practical actions that enable the state to move towards UHC rapidly. For example, the values and the core-principles in the Ethiopian health policy explicitly states that granting universal health coverage is the ultimate target.

The recent activities in redefining the Essential Health Service Packages (EHSP) will serve to focus along the priority health problem in the faces of limited resources. The re-definition of the EHSP is at the heart of the focus in the DCP-E project, where Ethiopian researchers has been trained both at University of Bergen and Harvard University. 

To re-define the EHSP packages is identified as one of the most important next steps to succeed in achieving UHC in Ethiopia. 

For more information, read this press release written by researchers in GHP, post doc Alemayehu Hailu and PhD Candidate Getachew Teshome Eregata