By Tabora Bojang
A Gambian delegation undergoing training on the results-based financing (RBF) Report has hailed Zimbabwe’s health sector as one of the best in Africa.
The 19-member delegation comprising permanent secretaries, professors, doctors and other experts including the executive director of the National Nutrition Agency (Nana) Pa Modou Faal arrived in Zimbabwe on knowledge visit on RBF.
Briefing journalists in Harare recently on their visit Mr Faal who is also the project coordinator for the RBF in The Gambia, said their 10-day visit to Zimbabwe taught them a number of lessons.
“I have been to many African countries starting from West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa and especially those English-speaking countries, but the health system I found in Zimbabwe is a model that needed to be emulated,” he said.
He expressed his impression of the way the Zimbabwe health system is being decentralised to the provincial and district levels.
“What also impressed me is the level of commitment of the staff, it looks like you have the right staff at the right place. They love their work and do it with passion, which I believe is what is needed for any profession to be successful,” Faal said.
The permanent secretary at the Office of the Vice President, Nancy Niang, who led the delegation stated: “We went from Harare to Binga. You have the various faces of the provinces, but it is the same spirit of commitment that we came across. We have learnt quite a lot of issues. Your health sector is something else and this is why we have chosen Zimbabwe to come and study the RBF programme,” she added.
Zimbabwe Health and Childcare Secretary, Dr Gerald Gwinji, said he was happy with the Gambian team’s report saying they visited various health facilities and they shared the positives and also the negatives.
“They have given us a very comprehensive presentation with very precise and concise recommendations. We will be sitting down as top management team to look at these and see how we address them in the context of our RBF programme,” he stated.
