Civil Society Advocacy Forum (Csaf) has made a fresh call for the Malawi Government to move with speed in finding domestic sources of financing the health sector which is dominantly funded by donors.
The forum made the call in Dowa on Friday during a meeting with Ministry of Health and Treasury officials aimed to advocate for the implementation of domestic health financing in the face of growing donor fatigue.
During the meeting, Csaf vice-chairperson Simon Sikwese expressed worry that government is still depending more on donors to finance the health sector despite that donor aid is shrinking.
He said heavy donor dependency has also seen government prioritising donor needs ahead of the country’s,, saying Malawi should start thinking how it can serve citizens’ needs.
Said Sikwese: “As we are talking about investing in health, let us also talk about the impact of the termination of United States [US] aid so that we move quickly and start generating resources that are going to be filling the gaps that have been created. We must lead in deciding the health of our people.”
He said Malawi has many opportunities it can utilise to finance the health sector.
“Besides taxes, there is need to enhance paying services in public hospitals, promote health insurance and partner with the private sector to support health services,” said Sikwese.
Weighing in, Centre for the Development of People communications and advocacy officer Vitumbiko Gwamba Zgambo called on government to work with civil society organisations in promoting domestic health financing.
He said the civil society needs representation in the Health Financing Reforms Committee.
Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs spokesperson Williams Banda in an interview yesterday said all government activities are financed using the national budget and health activities were already taken care and will be part of the national macroeconomic framework.
On the other hand, the Parliamentary Committee on Health has been advocating for increased domestic health financing.
In Malawi, trends show that the country has consistently missed the Abuja Declaration target to allocate 15 percent of resources in national budgets to the health sector. Malawi has averaged 10 percent.
The World Health Organisation recommends an annual per person expenditure of $86 (K150 000) to effectively improve universal health coverage targets, but Malawi spends $16 (K28 000) per person.
