ZANU PF has reneged on its pre-election threats to disengage from the Western donor-funded Health Transition Fund (HTF), with Health and Child Care deputy minister Paul Chimedza saying the programme will run until 2016.
REPORT BY STAFF REPORTER
In its 2013 election manifesto, Zanu PF had ruled out any co-operation with Western donors who established the $500 million HTF claiming the programme had been designed to prop up the MDC-T during the tenure of the inclusive government.
But, Chimedza told NewsDay this week: “The programme is in its second year and we are quite happy with it and we will be part of it through its five years. A total of $594 million was pledged under the programme. By July this year, we had received $148 million. It is a high impact intervention. It provides support in terms of vaccines, new technology and support for reducing maternal and child mortality through abolishing user fees.”
In its manifesto in the run-up to the July 31 elections, Zanu PF said: “Over the last four years of the Global Political Agreement, a cluster of regime change donors have taken sinister advantage of the fact that the Education and Health ministries fell under the opposition formations and they have been pouring funds into the two ministries through illegal parallel structures — Education Transition Fund (ETF) and Health Transition Fund (HTF).”
Part of the party’s manifesto also read: “This donorfication is driven by sinister motives inspired by the desire to uproot the architecture of education and health delivery built by Zanu PF since 1980 and widely acknowledged around the world as hallmarks of unparalleled success. This threat needs to be nipped in the bud to restore the people’s confidence in education and health delivery systems and to ensure their sustainability and relevance to the indigenous imperatives.”
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Unicef chief communications officer in Zimbabwe Victor Chinyama, however, yesterday described their working relationship with government as cordial, saying: “Unicef is the funding agency, but the funds are provided by various donors. The donors and government jointly review the programme every month and agree on plans to be implemented. Unicef has not received any formal communication on the future of the programme. What it has received, in fact, is appreciation for the contribution to the health sector of the programme.”