Essential medicines are integral components of an effective health care system. Governments, therefore, consider that assuring their citizens with access to quality-assured essential medicines as a national priority. For the Ethiopian government, securing self-sufficient access to qualityassured essential medicines is considered as strategic for its public health as well as its economic benefits. In the last decade, the Ethiopian government has invested in expanding the health care infrastructure to increase the health care service demand of the population. Despite the major progress made to improve the health status of the population in the last couple of decades, the health status of Ethiopia remains relatively poor. The pharmaceutical manufacturing industry as well is still in its nascent stage and has yet to be commensurate to the local demand.
On July 14th 2015, the National Strategy and Plan of Action for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Development in Ethiopia (NSPA-Pharma),which had been developed with the technical and financial support of WHO at the request of the Federal Government of Ethiopia, was launched in the presence of top national and international dignitaries, including WHO’s Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. Currently, the implementation of the NSPA-Pharma, a ten-year strategy and a five-year action plan, is on-going under the leadership of a Joint Steering Committee comprising of senior government officials.