The National Health Strategic Plan (NHSP) 2022-2026 Launched

The National Health Strategic Plan (NHSP) 2022-2026 was launched by the Minister of Health Hon. Sylvia Masebo on 23^rd February 2023. Partners and stakeholders in the health sector witnessed the launch of the 2022 – 2026 Strategic Plan under the theme, “Towards Attainment of Quality Universal Health Coverage through Decentralisation.”

Speaking at the launch of the 2022-2023 NHSP, Hon. Sylvia Masebo said the plan aims at delivering health services as close to the people as possible while leaving no one behind.

“The Plan envisions a Nation of Healthy and Productive People” who will propel social economic development of our country towards the aspiration of the country’s vision 2030. Further, the Plan translates Government’s intentions for the Ministry of Health to deliver health care services as close to the family as possible while leaving no one behind.”

She also added that the Zambian Government desires to transform the health care delivery services to focus more on prevention as a measure of being effective and efficient whilst continuing to strengthen the curative services.

Hon. Sylvia Masebo stated that the 2022-2023 NHSP has two strategic directions with one focusing on Health care services and another on the health systems strengthening.

The Minister also noted that that decentralization of health care services through the Local Authorities is the way to go in order to efficiently deliver health care systems to the people of Zambia as this can never be done without the participation of the people themselves. 

The Plan has also provided strategies to strengthen the health system such as;) provision of a reliable supply of essential drugs and medical supplies; provision of appropriate technological equipment and transport; development of a well-spread out and well-maintained infrastructure; and recruitment of a trained and motivated workforce.

CHAZ Executive Director, Mrs. Karen Sichinga who also spoke on behalf of the CSOs said the individual plans for the CSOs will be aligned to the national framework. 

“As Civil society we have been eagerly waiting for this moment – the launch of the National Health Strategy.  Our individual organizational Strategic Plans will now be aligned to the national framework so that we are all pulling in the same direction for the benefit of the people of Zambia.”

Mrs. Sichinga applauded the path taken by USAID in leading the way to localising organisations and for also believing in the sustained development outcomes even after foreign support has reduced. 

“We are inspired by the example and leadership shown by the US Government in ensuring that Local organisations are supported to take up roles which have been historically left to complex international organisations. The US Government through the localisation Initiative is directing 25 percent of the USAID programme budget to Local organisations. This is in addition to giving local actors to lead, design, implement, or evaluate at least 50 percent of programming. The USAID argues that localisation will ensure that development outcomes have a greater potential to be sustained even after foreign support has reduced.”

To this effect, Mrs. Sichinga has proposed for the development of localisation strategies to support the “going local” principles.

The CHAZ Executive Director also noted that the Strategic Plan is viewed as an opportunity for the beginning of a new chapter in the health sector where local indigenous institutions are engaged in genuine capacity strengthening.

The National Health Strategic Plan was developed within the context of the national and health sector development planning frameworks. The Strategic Plan is guided by the Vision 2030, the Eighth National Development Plan (8NDP), other relevant national, regional and international policy and strategic development frameworks such as to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, SDG 3, which focuses on the “health and wellbeing of the population”.

The NHSP 2022-2026 is a nation’s guide to implementation health related services for the health sector for the next five years. It builds upon the experiences and lessons learnt from the implementation of the last NHSP.