[Toward strengthening the health politics in Africa: the military health system and its contribution to health policy in Senegal]. / Pour le renforcement des politiques de santé en Afrique: le cas de la contribution de l'armée à l'effort en matière de santé au Sénégal.

Since the following days of independences, the Senegalese army mission has mainly consisted in defending the national territory integrity and in ensuring the protection of the populations and their goods. In the public health system, thanks to the quality of its human resources the army intervenes specifically at every level of the health care structure. The mission assigned to the Senegalese army health unit is therefore multidimensional. In 2001, the operational budget of the army health services is estimated at 177 millions CFA F (265500 euros), its medical consumption at 212 millions CFA F (323 000 Euros) and its health expenditure at 385 millions CFA F (585 000 euros). The army supports the government health policies in different ways: on the one hand, availability of the ministry of health staff, on the other hand, the direct involvement in health care and the implementation of the national and international health programmes.