The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare is set to receive funding from International Heath Partnership (I HP+) initiative as it seeks to renew efforts to accelerate progress towards the health MDGs and other health outcomes .It is also aimed at making international development assistance more effective in addressing health system barriers to improve service delivery. The consortium was created solely by a group of partners from developed and developing countries who share common interests in improving health outcomes by putting Paris and Accra principles on aid effectiveness into practice.
The Gambia now is a member and currently developing a status of country compact against which backdrop the health officials convened a brief session for key stakeholders in the process on the process of implementation of the International health partnership principles and the status of the country compact development.
Speaking on behalf of President Jammeh at the launching of the programme Thursday at Laico Atlantic Atlantic Hotel in Banjul, Health Minister Omar Sey said: “IHP+ initiative was launched in London during 2007 and is one the most important global health initiatives of our time in which signatories commit to work effectively to build sustainable health systems and improve health outcomes. This is a product of the Paris principles in health, namely: national ownership, alignment with national systems, harmonisation between agencies, managing for results and mutual accountability. IHP+ is a group of partners who share a common interest in health outcomes by putting these principles and the Accra principles on aid effectiveness into practice. It is a renewed effort to accelerate progress towards the Health MDGs and other health outcomes by making international development assistance more effective and efficient in addressing underlying health system barriers to improved delivery of health services”.
He added: “It is the time to unite, and harmonise plans of action for better results. This is centred on accomplishment and resources for the advancement of the Gambia’s health sector. This is the way forward .The IHP+ aims to re-popularise the horizontal health system strengthening approach which focuses on building up the capacity of aid recipient country’s health system and services. It also aims to better coordinate global health actors at different levels, whether international or local. The Gambia is a member of IHP+ initiative and has drafted the country compact, which will serve as a similar manner as a poverty reduction strategy paper (Prsp) but exclusive to strengthening of national health systems and services .A coordinated mechanism needs to be instituted to ensure harmonisation and effective use of resources based on country led compact. The Gambia’s implementation of the IHP+ principles will be based on one sector policy, one sector strategic plan and one sector monitoring and evaluating system”.
The World Health Organisation, Banjul Office representative, Charles Sagoe Moses explained: “The IHP+ initiative recommends to countries that signed on to the global compacts to develop country compacts to achieve the coordination of development assistance. The country compact can be defined as time bound agreement, negotiated between the government represented by the ministry of health and the main partners in the health sector, committing all the parties that sign on to the agreement to channel existing and future investments to the achievement of the country health priorities through the implementation of the national health strategic plan.”
The permanent secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr Abdoulie Jallow, in his statement describe health financing as one of the functions of the health system stressing that it is a key determinant of health system performance in term of equity, efficiency, and quality.
“Financing health care requires collaboration of government, donors, other partners and beneficiaries. In The Gambia available statistics indicates that over 66% of the total health financing comes from donors (international health development partners) causing challenges for sustainability and predictability of the funding to the sector.”.
]]>
