An assessment of the core capacities of the Senegalese health system to deliver Universal Health Coverage.

Senegal is firmly committed to the objective of universal health coverage (UHC). Various initiatives have been launched over the past decade to protect the Senegalese population against health hazards, but these initiatives are so far fragmented. UHC cannot be achieved without health system strengthening (HSS).

How to recruit and retain health workers in underserved areas: the Senegalese experience.

Problem: Significant regional disparities in human resources for health deployment in Senegal weaken the country's health system and compromise population health.

Approach: In recent years, the Ministry of Health adopted measures to improve the posting, recruitment and retention of health workers in rural and remote areas. One was the introduction of a special contracting system to recruit health workers.

The benefits of setting the ground rules and regulating contracting practices.

In recent years, health systems have increasingly made use of contracting practices; despite results that are often promising, there have also been failures and occasionally harsh criticism of such practices. This has made it even more necessary to regulate contracting practices. As part of its stewardship function, in other words its responsibility to protect the public interest, the ministry of health has the responsibility of introducing the tools needed for such regulation.