SADC member states are rallying to plug a US$10 billion health funding gap, with Finance and Health Ministers meeting in Harare today to chart strategies for sustainable healthcare financing and safeguard critical health programmes across the region.
The two-day meeting, hosted by the Government of Zimbabwe in partnership with the SADC Secretariat and development partners, is being held under the Africa Leadership Meeting (ALM) commitments on Investing in Health, a mandate endorsed by African Union (AU) and SADC Heads of State and Government.
In a statement ahead of the meeting on Saturday, the SADC Secretariat said the gathering would conclude with the adoption of the Ministerial Outcome Statement and the SADC Health Financing Strategic Action Framework, which are expected to guide the region’s response to declining external health funding.
“The meeting comes as external health financing is reducing faster than domestic systems are adapting. Shifts in external support have left the Region facing an estimated US$10 billion financing gap, placing three decades of gains in HIV and AIDS, maternal and child health, and nutrition at risk,” the Secretariat said.
The Secretariat said ministers would deliberate on a wide range of measures aimed at strengthening the region’s health systems.
“Ministers will consider emergency fiscal responses, domestic resource mobilisation, public financial management reform, pooled procurement and local manufacturing, and blended and innovative financing, as well as preparedness and response to Ebola and other pandemics framing health not as net expenditure but as a strategic investment in human capital and the demographic dividend,” it said.
According to the Secretariat, the region enters the meeting with encouraging progress after seven Member States successfully completed National Health Financing Dialogues.
“The Region arrives with momentum: seven Member States Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have completed National Health Financing Dialogues, catalysing reforms in budget execution, procurement efficiency, the alignment of health priorities with public finance systems and the Health Provision project piloting,” the Secretariat said.
The Secretariat said the meeting is expected to deliver concrete commitments that will shape the future of healthcare financing across Southern Africa.
“The Ministerial Outcome Statement emanating from the Joint Ministerial Meeting is expected to provide quantified commitments including progressive annual increases in domestic health investment and protection of health budget lines a tracked roadmap through the ALM process, and a unified SADC position for negotiating a more predictable financing architecture with partners,” the Secretariat said.
The Joint Meeting of SADC Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Health is convened every two years under the Africa Leadership Meeting commitments on Investing in Health.
It seeks to strengthen cooperation between finance and health sectors to ensure sustainable healthcare financing, improve health system resilience and safeguard the region against future disease outbreaks.
