ZIMBABWE’s health sector reliance on donor partners and developmental agencies is set to continue after Treasury failed to allocate adequate funding to the health sector in its 2015 National Budget, a health pressure group has said.
SENIOR REPORTER
In a statement soon after announcement of the 2015 National Budget, Citizen Health Watch Trust (CHWT) board member Fungisai Sithole said ideally, government should have set aside 15% of its budget towards health as provided for under the Abuja Declaration on Health Funding.
In his $4,1 billion budget statement last week, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said 92% of the budget would go towards civil servants’ salaries and wages, leaving very little money for operations and capital expenditure.
Sithole said CHWT was concerned with the little resources allocated to public health at a time the majority of the population was unemployed or living in abject poverty.
“We have been for sometime asking the government to keep its commitment to the Abuja declaration, that 15% of national budgets, should go towards health funding,” Sithole said.
She added: “It was imperative for the State to adequately fund public health particularly maternal health in a country where slightly over 10% of the 13 million population are on medical aid cover.”
Zimbabwe’s health system has been in a precarious position for the past decade due to inadequate funding, staff and drugs.
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“The majority of the country’s urban and rural poor, and those in farming and other remote communities, cannot access private or specialist health care unless they can pay for the service out-of-pocket,” Sithole said.
She said CHWT would continue to lobby government to move to evidence-based budgeting, particularly in the health sector.
“The government should allocate its resources based on available evidence of funding needs. Most clinics need simple things like running water, essential drugs, linen, beds and functional refrigeration facilities,” she said.
Zimbabwe, for the last 15 years, has been depending on the donor community to fund its HIV and Aids, TB and malaria programmes.
These have largely been funded through the United Nations Global Fund.
Other funding has come from the 3% Aids levy charged on employees and companies.
