The Ministry of Health and Social Services’ second national health system review workshop, aimed at assessing the performance of Namibia’s health system and progress made between 2009 and 2021, started on Monday.

The week-long workshop has brought together representatives from the regions and development partners as well as officials from the ministry, to review available data on the health system and provide an overview of the health status of the Namibian population under the health care services being provided in the country.

The workshop will further evaluate the progress in the implementation of the Health Sector Strategic Plan 2017/18 – 2021/22 and provide an evidence base for the development of national development plans in achieving Vision 2030.

The last health system review was conducted in 2008 and provided data for planning and decision making.

Speaking during the official opening, the Health Ministry’s Executive Director Ben Nangombe said data is critical in policy planning, adding that the data at hand is more than a decade old and a lot of things have changed over this period.

“The idea is, therefore, to provide fresh data to decision-makers in government, development co-operation partners and other stakeholders to inform policy formulation, planning and management of the health system,” he said.

Nangombe noted that the review comes at an opportune time as the ministry’s strategic plan is set to come to an end in 2022, saying it will assess progress in attainment of targets, implementation of strategies and document contextual factors impacting the performance of the health system through an in-depth analysis; and to propose approaches to inform the development of the next health policy and sector strategic plan.

“The intended system review will inform us in terms of the policy innervations that we need to make as well as the necessary connection between the implementation of health policies and the high level of plans of government such as the vision 2030 and the Harambee Prosperity Plan,” he said.

After the workshop, the health ministry will do data collection in areas with insufficient data as identified through the workshop, and the second Namibia health review report will then be published.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency