Bringing it all together - Annual Report 2008 - WHO Namibia
The provision of quality and equitable health care services to all Namibians is one of the country’s development priorities. Health is identified as being critical to the national development agenda and is one of the priority strategic areas in the country’s key development document, Vision 2030.
Namibia faces several health challenges including a high HIV prevalence, one of the highest in the sub-Saharan African region. Namibia has high tuberculosis (TB) incidence that has seen it ranked as one of the four countries in the world with the highest TB estimated incidence in 2008. The steady increase in maternal mortality ratio (MMR) over more than 15 years is a challenge for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Health facilities are under pressure to respond to the country’s growing health needs, while the human resource base of the health sector continues to lag behind the national health needs. This challenge is largely a result of the fragmented health care delivery system that was inherited at Independence from the South African Apartheid regime.
