Algeria’s health sector is in the midst of significant reform, with the government seeking to improve service delivery and promote local pharmaceutical manufacturing in a bid to reduce dependence on imported products. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Algeria spends 3.5 percent of GDP on health services. With gross domestic product estimated at $130 billion for 2008, this would put health expenditure at $4.5 billion. Similarly, the WHO estimates that 9.5 percent of Algeria’s total government expenditure goes toward the overall health sector, notably higher than neighboring Morocco’s 5.5 percent or the 6.5 percent outlay from Tunisia. Recent years have seen a gradual shift away from a policy of state provision of all health services, as a result of the spread of private sector medical facilities — which have grown from two clinics in 1990 to more than 250 today — and the end of the government monopoly on
