Title: Historical development of Ethiopian Health Services
Course: Health Management, Ethics and Research - Ethiopia (Full)

Historical development of Ethiopian Health Services

Although you are currently studying this course in comparatively modern times it is important for you to understand the way that the Health Service you will be working in has developed over previous years. This section will also help you understand how recent changes in health policy have helped the development of Primary Health Care in rural areas. Ethiopia is a country with 85% of its population living in rural areas. Between 70% and 80% of the diseases that affect its population are preventable by using simple methods. Despite this, Ethiopia previously had a health policy that focused on curative and urban-centred health services until the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia launched its new health policy in 1993.

The new health policy gives much more emphasis on prevention and the health promotion components of healthcare that should be able to resolve most of the health problems of the population. The main features of this policy include a focus on decentralisation, expanding the PHC system, and encouraging partnerships as well as the participation of the whole community in health activities. The strategy of the policy has been to expand healthcare delivery at the grass roots level through the implementation of the Health Service Extension Programme (HSEP). The primary aim of the HSEP approach is to bring health service delivery to the rural community at family level where such a big percentage of the total population lives.