PASSGUI – Health Sector Support Programme in Guinea

Guinea faces major public health challenges. The country ranked 182^nd out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2021 and has a life expectancy of 58.9 years, below the Sub-Saharan African average (60.1 years).

For several years now, the Guinean Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene has been engaged in a series of reforms to permanently structure the health system:

• Revision of the Public Health Code
• Revision of the special status of health professionals
• Reform of the Pharmaceutical Law

An organisational, institutional and functional audit of the Ministry was conducted in December 2023, laying the foundations for new strategic directions. In addition, the National Health Policy (PNS) and National Health Development Plan (PNDS) 2015-2024 are currently being revised.

These structural projects provide the strategic and programmatic framework of the PASSGUI project. 

The project aims to improve equal access to quality healthcare by contributing to the development of universal health coverage (UHC) in Guinea. This involves structural action for sectoral reforms in the fields of governance, healthcare provision, medicines, human resources, and financing.

The programme is also contributing to strengthening a range of quality health services at the primary and secondary levels, and setting up a healthcare financing system. 

The PASSGUI project will also support the health sector through five lines of action:

1. Strengthen sectoral governance.
2. Improve service provision.
3. Improve the availability and management of medicines and health products.
4. Develop health human resources.
5. Support sustainable health financing.

The project is financed by the European Union and France and implemented in Team Europe format by Expertise France and Enabel, in support of the Guinean Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene.

The activities are implemented at the central level and in two operational areas: Conakry and the Nzérékoré region.

The project is helping to prepare or update several strategic documents, while strengthening the capacities of institutional actors at the central, devolved and decentralised levels.

A technical assistance mechanism, composed of national and international experts, is being deployed to provide operational support to the relevant departments, divisions and services of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene.

The project’s priority lines of action include:

• The revision of the National Health Policy (PNS)
• The revision of the National Health Development Plan (PNDS)
• The preparation of the health map
• The introduction of the Essential Package of Health Services (PSSE)
• The revision of the National Essential Medicines List (LNME)
• The preparation of a new National Health Human Resources Development Plan (PNDRHS)
• The updating of the National Health Financing Strategy
• The revision of pricing for care and medicines
• The design and testing of a universal health insurance model