Maravi

NGOs hail Sweden's resumption of health sector funding

NGOs hail Sweden's resumption of health sector funding
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 17 June 2012, 13:21 CAT

THE Civil Society Health Forum has welcomed the resumption of funding by the Swedish government to the Ministry of Health following the former's suspension of financial support to the Zambian government in 2009 due to alleged misappropriation of donor funds.

The Swedish government last Monday released K33.5 billion for the health sector to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Swedish Ambassador to Zambia Lena Nordstrom said the fight against corruption was an ongoing task and she asked the Ministry of Health to strengthen its accountability structures.

Ambassador Nordstrom said her government was committed to supporting the Zambian health sector following the progress made by the Ministry of Health in recent years to improve accountability and transparency in management of funds.

Co-chair of the Civil Society Health Forum, Felix Mwanza, said the resumption of funding could not have come at a better time than now when the country was going through hardships in health service delivery following the dwindling of funds by both multilateral and bilateral partners as a result of the financial crunch, the euro crisis and the paradigm shift in development aid due to other pressing global needs such as climate change.

Mwanza said while welcoming the resumption, the CSOs should not be left out of the table of discussion for resumption of such donor assistance as failure to do so would result in failure by CSOs to provide the necessary checks and balances that were expected of them.

He said the plan of action agreed upon between the cooperating partners and the government to put in place among other things systems of accountability, transparency and best practice also had space for civil society to be involved in everything that the duo embarked upon.

"It is important to also mention that while both the Zambian government and its Swedish counterpart have put pen to paper for support amounting to K33.5 billion, it is the Zambian grassroots that have sacrificed and endured hardships and at times lost their loved ones because there was no assistance coming through as a result of a few selfish individuals that chose to misuse the funds that should have served the public good," he said.

Mwanza called on both the government, cooperating partners and the Swedish government to ensure that proper oversight and fiduciary measures were put in place to safeguard that which belonged to the people of Zambia.

He called upon the Ministry of Health to quickly assist other needy initiatives in the community such as the Chilanga Hospice, Kalingalinga, Zatulet and many other community-based initiatives that were threatened with closure to benefit from the resumption of such funding.

The Civil Society Health Forum is an alliance of organisations working in the health sector and have expertise in maternal health, sexual reproductive health, child health, immunisations, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, nutrition, health systems and services, monitoring and evaluation, media and mental health.

Labels: DONORS, HEALTHCARE, NGOs, SWEDEN

posted by MrK @ 2:07 PM