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Farirai Machivenyika

Senior Reporter

Improvement in the provision of public health and curative services are among four key result areas for the Ministry of Health and Child Care this year.

This is contained in a document highlighting the key deliverables of the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Jasper Chimedza’s performance contract.

Permanent Secretaries signed performance contracts recently as Government seeks to ensure delivery.

Apart from the improvement in public health and curative services, the ministry seeks to enhance policy and administration and bio-medical engineering, bio-medical science, pharmaceuticals and bio-medical production.

Some of the outcomes expected from the ministry this year include reduced morbidity and mortality due to communicable and non-communicable, improved reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health and nutrition.

Other outcomes include improved public health surveillance and disaster preparedness and response; improved access to primary and secondary, tertiary, quaternary and quinary health care services; improved access to availability of essential medicines and improved infrastructure facilities and critical equipment for health service delivery.

The ministry was allocated $54,705 billion for its programmes this year which translates to 12,74 percent of the National Budget.

Meanwhile, Local Government and Public Works Permanent Secretary Mr Zvinechimwe Churu is expected to expedite the implementation of the devolution policy, formulate, regulate and monitor policies that promote sound local governance.

Devolution is a key component of Government’s quest for the country to be an upper middle income country by 2030.

Under the devolution policy, provinces are expected to utilise their resources for economic development with their GDPs being collated to assess their contribution to national development.

The ministry’s outcomes are enhanced integrated and orderly built environment; improved service delivery by local authorities, enhanced local governance; improved economic development; improved institutional accommodation for Government ministries, departments and regional organisations; improved access to public buildings, enhanced management of public buildings and improved disaster risk management.

The ministry was allocated $29, 609 billion in the 2021 Budget.

President Mnangagwa launched the performance contracts for Permanent Secretaries on the backdrop of the success of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme and the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1.

The contracts set out the different ministries’ key deliverables for performance for the year 2021 and include each ministry’s vision, mission, budget allocated for 2021, key result areas, ministry national outcomes, ministry sector outcomes and ministry programmes.

They also set out what needs to be achieved, expected levels of achievement, timelines and reporting modalities.

The contracts also define tasks so that management can perform them systematically, purposefully and with reasonable probability of achievement, thereby making it possible to measure the performance of an institution, a manager
and Government.