southern sudan health system assessment - Health Systems 20/20

4. HEALTH STATUS AND HEALTH
SECTOR POLICIES
4.1 HEALTH SECTOR POLICIES
Currently, four main financing channels support the health sector: (1) MoH public budget for health; (2)
the GoSS/MDTF Umbrella Program for Health; (3) multilateral donors; and (4) bilateral donor
mechanisms. A more comprehensive description of health financing is provided in Section 5.2 of this
report.
The World Bank is the administrator for MDTF-South (for Southern Sudan) and MDTF-North (for
Northern Sudan). These two trust funds were established in 2005 following the CPA, which established
the GoNU and the GoSS. The MDTF-South and the GoSS are co-financing a health sector development
program that totals US$ 225 million for three years (MDTF US$ 75 million, GoSS US$ 150 million). This
three-year program focuses on development of core capacities and components of the health system,
while at the same time supporting rapid expansion of service delivery and selected high-impact
preventive health interventions. (Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning 2006, World Bank 2007)
Among the UN agencies, WHO has been active in supporting disease surveillance and technical
assistance on health policy and systems development, while UNICEF and the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA) support child and reproductive health programs in focus areas. The other UN agencies focus
predominantly on humanitarian interventions.
Among bilateral agencies, USAID, since 1998, has funded humanitarian health activities through the
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), supporting NGOs to provide primary health care (PHC)
services, the training of health care workers, the rehabilitation of health care clinics, guinea worm
initiatives, and emergency feeding programs; providing basic water and sanitation services; and piloting
an HIV/AIDS prevention activity. OFDA provides relief food commodities for feeding programs
(supplementary and therapeutic feeding programs) that are provided through the Food for Peace Office
to the World Food Program or through NGOs. USAID began supporting an integrated health sector
development project to reach a total of 20 (of a reported 90) counties to improve access to high-impact
services; develop capacity to deliver and manage health services; increase demand for PHC services and
practices; improve access to safe water and sanitation; increase access to HIV/AIDS service; and develop
monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. See Annex C for a map of donor activities in the health
sector.
Other multilateral donors, including the European Union, WHO, and UNICEF, have also been on the
front line of humanitarian assistance in the past decade. Italian Cooperation is supporting
decentralization activities, rehabilitation of health facilities, emergency support to Rumbek hospital, 5 and
financial support to the MDTF. The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development
(DFID) has also committed US$ 30 million over two years through the DFID Basic Services Fund, which
5
Figures on number of facilities in Southern Sudan vary by source: the number of hospitals ranges between 19 and 29, the
number of primary health care centers between 103 and 111; the number of primary health care units is 551.
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