By Kenneth Thompson
Executive director, Health for All coalition, says his organisation is ever committed to ensuring accountability and transparency in Sierra Leone’s health sector as a way to reduce maternal and infant mortality.
Charles Mambu, after winning the “good practice programme monitoring award” told journalists in Freetown that he was grateful to UNFPA for acknowledging their work.
He said 22 countries were up for this year’s award but that his organisation emerged the winner for the west and central Africa regions.
Mambu said the award was “in recognition of the hard work we are doing here”, adding that the competition revealed to a very high degree the innovation of Health for All Coalition in the development and articulation of effective monitoring and evaluation systems.
He said their robust monitoring and evaluation of the health sector over the years had reduced cases of health facilities reporting shortage of free health care drugs, which he put at 96% in 2011 to 30% in 2012/13.
“Major incidence of reported theft of free health care drugs has reduced from 12 in 2011 to six in 2012/13” he said and added that their effective monitoring had made government allocate funding for reproductive health commodities and family planning.
Whilst handing over the certificate, UNFPA country representative, Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi said his organization supported the free health care initiative “wholeheartedly”.
“That is why we will like to see a situation where the medicines and resources intended for lactating mothers and under-five children reach them without interception by any person”.
He encouraged the coalition to continue their good work, and pleaded with government to increase spending to the health sector, promising his organisation’s commitment to helping the government in that regard.
(C) Politico 10/12/13
