By Kenneth Thompson
Executive Director of the advocacy group, Health Alert has told a news conference in Freetown that "our leaders don't treat health issues with seriousness".
In a statement to launch their Race for Survival event, Victor Lansana Koroma pointed out that the Abuja Declaration which Sierra Leone signed in 2001 required countries to spend 15% of the National budget to be allocated to children’s health by 2015. He said the government of Liberia recently allocated 18% of their budget to health issues for children and women. But he said Sierra Leone was yet to fully achieve the 10% anticipated for 2013.
Koroma argued that the government could even postpone budget increment for education, but it should never delay on health issues.
The Communication Officer of Health Alert, William Sao Lamin said the race which would take place on the 26 October at the National Stadium should be a reminder to leaders of the world, and in particular the Sierra Leone government, to pledge their loyalty to children’s health. Quoting figures from the national statistics, he said that for every 1,000 children born, 140 died of preventable diseases annually.
The manager of Save the Children's Everyone Campaign, Joanna Tom Kargbo, said the Race for Survival was taking place in Sierra Leone for the second time and that 64 countries would take part in the race. She said 10 junior secondary schools would also join the race with 50 children per school.
Kargbo told journalist that in 2012 her organisation advocated for an increase in budgetary allocations to children's health as a way of meeting the Abuja Declaration, but that only three percent was added, bringing the figure up to 10%. She however stressed that this allocation had been refused for the fourth time by the Ministry of Finance.
An official of the Ministry of Health, Victor King, said that his ministry would ensure that more money was allocated for children’s health programs.
(C) Politico 22/10/13
