THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has decried the inadequate disbursement of funds to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) by Treasury.
Speaking during a SMART Advocacy workshop organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and ZNFPC, health portfolio committee chairperson Josiah Makombe said there was need for alternative funding for health programmes in the country.
He said this was because there was donor fatigue, with others already in the process of withdrawing.
“I was really touched when the presentation was done that only ZWL$100 000 was disbursed to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council to do their job this year, which I think to me was not enough at all and also it was not fair, considering the amount of work that they do,” Makombe said.
“We understand we have the partners that come and chip in here and there, but if you look at the work that they do, for example, the issue of HIV prevention, if we don’t have measures to protect our people, in terms of condoms and all that, what it would then mean is that we will slide back to the years of 2000 and all that, where people will be affected now and then.
“We need to make sure that we fund them, we need to make sure that we support them. So as we go to the budget season, as a committee, as the portfolio committee for health, we are going to make sure that we look into their needs.”
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Makombe said there was need to prioritise the health sector, especially maternal health services.
“We need to make sure that health cannot be treated in the same way as other ministries. For any other ministry to provide what they can, they need to be in a sound, healthy mind, so we need to make sure that we support them so that they can achieve their dreams,” he said.
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotion chairperson Clemence Chiduwa said: “As we debate the budget that is going to be presented on November 28, we are looking at Members of Parliament defending the position that is coming from Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council and we are going to defend that, and we have said what we need to defend overall is the minimum 15% that is required.”
The Abuja Declaration stipulates that 15% of the national budget should be channelled to health, 3% of which is supposed to be dedicated to family planning services.
In the past, Treasury has failed to reach the 15% threshold.
Speaking at the same event, ZNFPC chief executive officer Farai Machinga decried the late disbursement of funds to undertake unmet needs for family planning services.
“For the past five, six years ZNFPC has not been receiving capital grants from Treasury and of the operational grant which has been allocated to ZNFPC, not all the allocated budget has been disbursed,” he said.
“In most cases, the disbursement is untimely and usually at the end of the year, which gives challenges in terms of the operations of the council and also effective implementation of its mandate which is on co-ordination, technical leadership and ensuring that there is provision of quality integrated service provision.”