Eritrea

There is no constitutional "right to health" per se. However, the Constitution provides that every citizen has the right of equal access to publicly funded social services and that the State shall endeavor, within the limit of its resources, to make available to all citizens health, education, cultural and other social services (art. 21).

The Constitution does not include specific provisions regarding competence for health issues.

The main goal of the "National Health Policy (NHP-2020)" is to maximize the health and wellbeing of all Eritreans and residents of Eritrea at all ages (page 14).

The policy identifies four policy objectives, including: reducing the burden of diseases and improving health status; minimizing the burden of health risk factors; strengthening emergency preparedness and response systems ; and increasing the length and quality of healthy life (pp. 14-15). The strategies to achieve these objectives include promoting universal health coverage, ensuring equitable access to essential health services, enhancing health security, and adopting a primary health care approach (pp. 17-18, 42-44).

In the background and situation analysis sections, the document references several legislative and regulatory frameworks that shape the health sector in Eritrea including: proclamation 37/1993 providing the legal mandate for the ministry of health; Legal Notice 14/1993 determining the powers and responsibilities of ministries, commissions, authorities and offices of the government; proclamation No. 36/1993 to control drugs, medical supplies, cosmetics and sanitary items ; proclamation No.74/1995 to control health service in private sector; proclamation No. 143/2004 to provide for tobacco control; proclamation No. 158/2007 to ban Female Genita Mutilation as well as dedicated chapters and articles within the civil and penal code.

The development and update of all necessary legal tools for guiding the health sector, including the public health law and the establishment of health workers regulatory mechanisms (councils) are highlighted in the Policy as priority governance actions to implement the Policy (page 47, page 36). The policy also outlines the need to strengthen the regulatory capacity in the areas of product registration, licensing of pharmaceutical premises and pharmacy practitioners, inspection and quality control to ensure appropriate regulations are in place for control of medicines, devices, diagnostics, biological reagents and traditional medicine products (page 37). Regulation of private sector delivery is also referred to in the Policy (page 38).

The ultimate goal of the "Third Health Sector Strategic Development Plan (HSSDP III) 2022-2026" is to achieve good health and wellbeing for all Eritreans at all ages by focusing on universal health coverage, health security, and addressing the determinants of health (pages 48-49).

The HSSDP III identifies several aims including: increasing the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) from a UHC index of 54.9% in 2019 to 60.1% in 2026 (page 48), enhancing health security through strengthened prevention, detection, and response, aiming to improve the International Health Regulations (IHR) core capacity from 57% in 2020 to 63.5% in 2026 (page 48), optimizing synergy, coordination, and leadership on the determinants of health to improve health and wellbeing, including access to water and sanitation and improved nutrition (page 48) and enhancing health systems functionality to modernize medical services and expand resilient and comprehensive public health services (page 48).

The plan highlights that legal backing is lacking for some activities (IHR, regulation of health commodities, health profession regulation) calling for the need to establish appropriate legal and regulatory frameworks (page 44). It further refers to specific reforms in the area of blood safety (creation of a blood safety act, pages 33-34), traditional medicines regulation (page 42, page 68), regulation of health workers (page 64), patient safety, data security, confidentiality and controlled access to information (page 71) and the development of a comprehensive health law to provide the legal framework for the essential package and its implementation (page 73).