Health Systems 20/20 Work Contributes to Policy Reform in Namibia
Nov 25 2008
African leaders meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, in April 2001, signed a declaration mandating that health budgets should constitute a minimum of 15% of national budgets. The Namibian Minister of Health, Dr. Richard Kamwi, recently informed participants at a Health Sector Stakeholders meeting about Namibia's progress in meeting this goal. The meeting was held on October 29, 2008, in Namibia.
"I am pleased to report that Government has in this current financial year increased its allocation to the health sector, moving closer to the desired commitment set out in the Abuja Declaration. Public health allocation increased from 13.8% in 2007/08 to 14.2% in 2008/09. In absolute terms, this is a 27% increase in the health budget.”
This year, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) embarked upon a major five-year strategic plan to improve health service provision in Namibia. Health Systems 20/20 contributed to the drafting of the strategic plan with inputs from National Health Account and infrastructure development findings. The Minister referred to the strategic plan as “our roadmap for the coming five years.”
Since completion of the strategic plan, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) is considering implementation of a policy to ensure financial expenditure autonomy for district level health centers as well as an improved resource allocation formula for all 13 regions in the country. The Minister extended words of appreciation to all development partners at the meeting saying,
“My sincere appreciation goes to the Permanent Secretary and his team for having worked tirelessly till this day to come up with this draft document (strategic plan)… let me also recognize our Development Partners that played a meaningful role in the Health and Social Services System Review (HSSSR). The HSSSR provided us with scientific evidence of what has been going wrong for the past decade and the Strategic Plan will guide us on how we can move forward. The review was to a larger extent made possible through the financial and technical support of UNICEF, WHO, USAID, UNFPA, ITECH and SYNERGOS.”
Minister Kamwi has called attention to the difficulties experienced by the government in coordinating donor assistance. Given the considerable amount of donor funds flowing into the health sector, the government hopes to hold joint planning meetings with all stakeholders to avoid inefficiency and duplication. The Minister states:
“Under the prevailing circumstance, it is clear that our working system within the health sector is largely fragmented with an inevitable duplication of your [donor] support in many ways or over-subscription to certain programmes or regions… It is therefore becoming increasingly challenging for us as a government agency to effectively perform our stewardship role. It is becoming more difficult for us to respond to you efficiently and timely in order to continue to enjoy your ever increasing assistance. As it stands currently, we need a more integrated approach to partner coordination within the health sector more than ever before.”
Health Systems 20/20 anticipates working with the MOHSS on coordination of donor aid.
