Supporting national health policies, strategies, plans
National Health Policies, Strategies and Plans (NHPSPs) play an essential role in defining a country's vision, policy directions and strategies for ensuring the health of its population. NHPSPs provide a framework in almost every country for dealing with the complex range of issues needed to improve health outcomes, including those related to the Sustainable Development Goals and to other national priority health problems, such as noncommunicable diseases.
The development of NHPSPs is a complex and dynamic process. The precise nature of developing NHPSPs varies from State to State according to the political, historical and socio-economic situation prevailing in the country. It can bring together different stakeholders as well as population views in a more balanced, coherent approach to improve the use of resources for health and move towards long-term sustainable improvements which:
- responds to the growing calls for strengthening of health systems and the renewal of Primary Health Care: universal coverage, people-centred care, emphasis on public health and health in all policies;
- serves to guide and steer the entire, pluralist health sector rather than being command-and-control plans for the public sector;
- goes beyond the boundaries of health systems, addressing the social determinants of health and the interaction between the health sector and other sectors in society.
WHO has a long track record of supporting Member States in developing NHPSPs through country-level technical cooperation, facilitation of national policy dialogue and inter-country exchange, as well as through normative work and high level international policy frameworks.
