Close to half of what Ethiopia spent on health in 2023 — 46% — was paid at the point of care by patients and their families (WHO Global Health Observatory (opens in a new tab), indicator GHED_OOPSCHE_SHA2011). We advocate for measures that would lower that share for cancer-affected households: passage of the universal health coverage legislation, publication of what a cancer diagnosis costs a household, and an inventory of treatment capacity by region. This page sets out the figures each rests on.
What households pay
Current health expenditure in Ethiopia was US$34.80 per person in 2023 (opens in a new tab) (WHO Global Health Observatory, indicator GHED_CHE_pc_US_SHA2011). Of that, 46.27% was paid out of pocket (GHED_OOPSCHE_SHA2011), or US$16.10 per person; government health expenditure was US$7.63 per person (GHED_GGHE-Dpc_US_SHA2011) and external financing US$9.35 (GHED_EXTpc_US_SHA2011). The universal health coverage service coverage index stood at 33 in 2023, up from 13 in 2000 (UHC_INDEX_REPORTED), with a non-communicable disease sub-index of 73. WHO records Ethiopia’s universal health coverage legislation as still to be passed, reference year 2017 (UHC_LEGISLATION).
Those percentages are averages across the whole population, only a small part of which is treated for cancer in any given year. A published figure for what an Ethiopian household is charged — for a biopsy, for pathology, for a course of radiotherapy, and for the travel to reach one of a few centres — together with the share of cancer-affected households facing catastrophic expenditure, would give the legislation a number to work to.
What capacity is recorded, and when it was recorded
The service capacity indicators carry 2021 as their reference year. Radiotherapy units were 0.09 per million population (indicator DEVICES22) — against a population estimated at about 132 million in 2024, which is on the order of a dozen machines nationally, a CPR – Ethiopia calculation from those two figures rather than a published count. Cancer surgery, radiotherapy, pathology laboratories, an operational cancer plan, national cancer management guidelines and oral morphine were reported available in the public sector. Palliative care was reported unavailable in primary health care and in community and home-based care in the same year.
The workforce indicators for 2024 record 20,593 medical doctors, 1.56 per 10,000 population (HWF_0001), and 143,270 nursing and midwifery personnel, 10.85 per 10,000 (HWF_0006). An inventory extending that count to oncologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and pathologists, and listing machines and laboratories by region, would show where in the country cancer treatment can actually be reached.
Where screening reaches
Ethiopia’s cervical screening programme is opportunistic: a woman is screened if she knows to ask and reaches a facility that offers a test, rather than being invited at a set age. In 2019, 4% of women aged 30–49 had ever been screened and 3% had been screened within the previous five years (NCD_CXCA_SCREENED_WITHIN_TIMEPERIOD; programme type from NCD_CCS_cervicalcancerpgmtype).
Eighty-seven primary health care facilities were equipped under a donor-funded programme (WHO AFRO, November 2025), in a country whose population was estimated at about 132 million in 2024 (the population IARC uses for GLOBOCAN 2024), of whom roughly half are women. In a month-long campaign across six regions from 7 November 2025, 275,607 women were screened against a target of 267,662 (opens in a new tab), alongside awareness work reaching 1,036,222 people. Partners put the annual requirement for the 2030 targets at about 2.6 million women screened (WHO AFRO, 15 January 2026); the campaign delivered roughly a tenth of one year’s — a CPR – Ethiopia calculation from those two figures. An annual screening volume reported against that requirement, and a national coverage estimate more recent than 2019, would show whether the programme is closing on the target.
Two HPV coverage figures that do not agree
WHO estimated coverage of the 9–14 target cohort at 51% in 2025, having peaked at 60% in 2022 and 2023 (Global Health Observatory, indicator SDGHPVRECEIVED). Ethiopia’s own administrative reporting recorded female HPV coverage between 90% and 94% for 2019 to 2023 on the final-dose series (HPV_FEM) and 96.0% first dose for 2025 (HPV_FEM1). Both figures sit within WHO systems and, on the like-for-like first-dose comparison for 2025, they differ by 45 points. The difference between what a country reports and what WHO estimates is a data-systems question in its own right, and it is published here rather than resolved.
What the national estimate rests on
Ethiopia’s estimated burden for 2024 was 79,239 new cases and 46,841 deaths (opens in a new tab), extrapolated from partial subnational registration rather than counted. A registry reporting incidence by region, woreda, and urban and rural residence would let burden, access to screening and treatment capacity be compared between parts of the country — the comparison an equity case turns on.
What we support
Publication of what a cancer-affected household pays, and of the share facing catastrophic expenditure; passage of the universal health coverage legislation that would settle what is covered and who pays; a facility and workforce inventory by region, including working treatment devices; an annual screening volume set against the 2.6 million requirement and a coverage estimate more recent than 2019; and a palliative care service to sit behind the medicine already reported as available.
Related pages
Cancer and the household bill and cervical screening in Ethiopia are the full briefs. Rural and underserved communities sets out the same access question for a reader deciding whether to attend. Practical and financial covers what is published about cost for someone already in treatment.