Senegal is deep committed to universal health coverage (UHC) – at the political, institutional, financial and operational levels. And it has the results to match. Furthermore, reforms underway are building on what the country has learned from experience.
On September 20, 2013, Senegal’s president officially launched UHC in the country. Following this launch, on January 7, 2015, the Universal Financial Protection agency was set up (couverture maladie universelle (CMU)). And, in 2017, the country’s National Health Financing Strategy (NHFS) was put in place.
The NHFS has four strategic axes:
- Improvement in availability of quality health services.
- Extension of financial protection in case of illness.
- Strengthening of multisectoral action with high impact on health.
- Increased mobilization of financial resources to advance UHC.
Social protection programme
The Ministry of Health and Social Action (MHSA) of Senegal, through its social protection programme, is committed to improving access to health and social assistance services free from discrimination on the basis of gender identity, in particular for people living in the most extreme poverty, people with disabilities and vulnerable groups. The following table summarizes MHSA’s initiatives and results in 2023.
| Initiatives | Main Results |
| Community-based health insurance (CBHI) centers | 46 departmental CBHI centers, with 676 local branches |
| 4,484,980 beneficiaries covered by CBHIs, which equates to a coverage rate of 26% of the overall population | |
| Free services for children under the age of 5 years | 14,795,315 claims |
| Free Caesarean section | 146,732 claims |
| Free health care for people over the age of 60 years (Sesame Plan) | 646,740 claims |
| Free dialysis | 850,000 claims for dialysis sessions benefiting 5423 people |
Source : National Health Accounts 2017-2021
Sources of health financing (% of total health expenditure, or THE)
| Financing source | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Central Government | 24.2 | 22.4 | 24.5 | 29.3 | 28.0 |
| Decentralized Government | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 1.0 |
| Companies | 6.7 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 6.3 | 7.0 |
| Households | 46.1 | 52.5 | 45.0 | 37.6 | 36.4 |
| Nongovernmental organizations | 1.2 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.0 |
| Development partners | 20.4 | 20.0 | 25.0 | 22.6 | 25.5 |
From 2012 through 2024, the budget of the MHSA increased 138% from CFAF 110.5 billion to CFAF 263.5 billion. The execution of the MHSA budget is at a satisfactory level (94.92% in 2020 and 95.34% in 2021 excluding salaries).
