Editorial Comment: Health Fund must benefit the people Dr Parirenyatwa
Dr Parirenyatwa

Dr Parirenyatwa

We applaud the launch of the Health Development Fund which seeks to raise $680 million to support maternal, reproductive, child and adolescent health related issues from 2016 to 2020.

Access to quality health care is one of the core basic human rights.

It is no secret that each year the allocation from the National Budget is much less than ideal.

Unfortunately this means that it is the most vulnerable in our society whose health is compromised as they fail to adequately access basic primary healthcare.

The fund is also expected to increase access to family planning services, eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and fight against malaria.

Speaking at the launch Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa indicated that the fund will be key in maintaining the gains made over the past five years in the specified areas.

The following statistics will show that the fund is concentrating on some of the key problem areas.

Reports say that Zimbabwe’s maternal mortality rate remains one of the highest in the world and access to service for the majority is heavily dependent on international aid.

In August 2014, Unicef released statistics showing that Zimbabwe’s maternal death rate had dropped 36 percent since 2009, to 614 per 100 000 live births from 960.

The European Union, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Population Fund and the United States Agency for International Development financed the Zimbabwe survey, which researched 17 000 households in every province of the country.

The numbers show that 70 percent of pregnant women in 2014 received prenatal care (up from 57 percent), and 78 percent of mothers gained access to care after birth (up from just 27 percent).

World Bank statistics place our infant mortality rate at 48 deaths for each 1 000 live births for the years 2010-2014.

Compared to countries like Andorra and Australia, who during the same period, experienced rates of two and three deaths per 1 000 live births respectively, our figures are horrifying.

No family should go through the agony of losing a child who could have been saved with simple interventions like immunisation and early treatment.

The United Nations goes on to observe that in Zimbabwe rural children have a higher mortality rate than their urban counterparts with most deaths being due to four preventable conditions namely Aids-related illnesses, neonatal problems, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

The Government has a duty to ensure that no one dies from preventable conditions.

It is therefore heartening to see the responsible ministry continue being proactive in finding solutions instead of just whining about the situation.

The target to reduce maternal and child mortality rates by 50 percent over the next five years is achievable.

We have overcome worse statistics over the years which means that we are capable of going the last mile.

But as Minister Parirenyatwa pointed out, all the great plans depend on his ministry securing adequate funding.

We hope that all the partners who have shown interest will come to the party.

But we would like to warn the ministry that partner organisations will obviously expect and demand transparency and accountability in the health delivery system.

In addition we, the citizens of this country, demand that the most vulnerable people be the biggest beneficiary of this initiative.

Therefore we hope that any wrinkles that existed in the Health Transition Fund have been smoothed out.

We should learn from our experiences so that we progress in our development and get that much closer to achieving universal quality health access as soon as possible.

We are particularly concerned with reports of institutionalised looting in which senior people get ridiculous allowances while the real beneficiaries who are the disadvantaged in the country continue to suffer.

In spite of media reports exposing the rot, we believe that practice continues as there has been no statement issued by the responsible authority to prove otherwise.

Let the intended beneficiaries benefit.

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