Resource Type: Report
Authors: Ethiopia Health Sector Financing Reform/Health Finance and Governance Project
Published: June 2018

Resource Description: Amhara is one of Ethiopia’s largest regions; it has 12 zones, three city administrations, and 180 woredas (139 rural and 41 urban). According to the Ethiopian Central Statistics Agency, the region has a projected population of 21.5 million people, about 80 percent of whom are rural farmers. Two decades ago, Amhara had only nine public hospitals and 140 health centers, which was insufficient to meet the demand of the region’s then 14.8 million residents. In addition, service coverage and quality were low. Today, the region has 80 hospitals (5 referral, 2 general, and 73 primary), 847 health centers, and 3,342 health posts. As in other regions of Ethiopia, Amhara’s health care system was unable to modernize and provide quality health services due to many challenges:

• Shortages of specialist doctors and other medical professionals, despite the increased number of health facilities
• Shortages of medical equipment, drugs, and medical supplies
• Inefficient and inequitable use of health resources
• Burdensome, high out-of-pocket payments for health care by the majority of the population at the time of illness

Lack of standardized health facility user fees that resulted in low resource mobilization and inequitable service provision To address health sector financing challenges, in 1998 the Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia approved a health care financing (HCF) strategy that calls for increasing financial resources available for the health sector.