National Health Policy

The policy states the options the Haitian State adopts to improve the population's health. It is presented as the result of a participatory process of departmental consultations that ended in the Etats Généraux de la Santé, and as a framework that all actors must follow, under the leadership of the MSPP as the National Health Authority. It is to be carried out through a ten-year master plan (Plan Directeur en Santé 2012-2022), three-year operational plans and annual action plans.

Chapters 1 and 2 give the diagnosis. Infectious diseases still dominate, and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, injuries and disability are rising. Maternal mortality was estimated at 630 per 100,000 live births in 2005 and HIV prevalence at 2.2 percent in 2005-2006. The text reports that 57 percent of the population lives in food insecurity, that 72 percent are below the poverty line, and that 26 of 133 communes have acceptable access to running water. Health spending was 5.7 percent of GDP in 2005-06, USD 32 per inhabitant; the State health budget was USD 75 million in 2009-10, about 80 percent of it for salaries. The formal health system reaches about 47 percent of the population, and the 908 facilities counted in the 2010 statistical yearbook are 30.62 percent public, 46.14 percent private and 23.24 percent mixed.

Chapter 3 sets four guiding principles (universality, comprehensiveness, equity, quality), a vision for the next 25 years and six specific objectives. Specific axes cover care delivery, infrastructure, human resources and essential medicines; global axes cover financing and spending control, including a National Health Fund and a progressive rise of the health share of the national budget to 15 percent; cross-cutting axes cover governance, integration, surveillance, social protection and intersectoral action. Care is organized in three levels, from community health centers and community reference hospitals to departmental hospitals and national university and specialized institutions. Chapter 4 lists what other ministries, local authorities, Parliament, civil society, partners and communities are expected to do, and chapter 5 sets the procedure for amending the policy.