Civil Society in Zimbabwe has urged government to curb its expenditure in-order to finance health service delivery.
At a civil society meeting in preparation for the Global Fund (GF) Mission to Zimbabwe this week (30 January 2012) a steering committee has been formed to guide advocacy activities. The meeting, convened by the Zimbabwe Aids Network (ZAN), also discussed the impact of the cancellation of the Global Fund’s latest spending round (Round 11).
ZAN National Director, Lindiwe Chaza-Jangira, says government needs to allow local resources to be levied in order to contribute to health services.
“Government needs to be more accountable and safeguard Zimbabwe’s resources,” Jangira says. She added that private sector needs to do more to support health service delivery.
“Personal allowances and purchase of motor vehicles for MPs can be properly managed for the good of the nation,” Jangira added.
The civil society advocacy steering committee is expected to research and present hard evidence on health issues to policy makers.
Civil society is proposing for government to look at additional local resources in addition to the National Aids Trust Fund (NATF), a domestic funding mechanism administered by the National Aids Council.
Under a delayed grant from the Global Fund (Round 8, Phase 2) Zimbabwe expects to get more than $197,000,000 for HIV support up to 2014. But Zimbabwe had bid for at least $60m in the cancelled GF Round 11 application, $40m for HIV and AIDS and the other for TB and Malaria treatment, prevention and care and is now looking at a funding shortfall.
“We have a huge resource constraint problem on our hands and we need to be pro-active,” a civil society spokesperson said.
He continues: “Under the Abuja Agreement, of which Zimbabwe is signatory, African governments have pledged to allocate of 15% of the national budget to health. Yet the health budget for 2012 is 8.65% of the national budget, while the health allocation in the 2011 budget was 9.3%. The million dollar question to ask is whether Zimbabwe is a resource poor country?” No; the country has ample natural resources to fill in the gap created by the cancellation of Round 11 but much of this is subject to abuse and corruption.”
