Monrovia –The Partnership for Sustainable Development (PaSD) has petitioned the House of Representatives to increase the health budget of Liberia to tackle maternal, newborn, adolescent and sexual reproductive health in (RMNCH) in Liberia.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
PaSD has been leading a group of civil society organizations in petitioning major stakeholders and policymakers including the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) and Health to increase the national health budget by 15 percent.
PaSD says an increment will set the base of addressing its plethora of health challenges including the ever-rising maternal rate of 1,072 deaths per 100,000 lives.
Liberia’s deaths rate of newborn babies is among the highest in the world because it has increased from 997/100,000 (997 deaths per 100,000 lives) to 1072/100,000 (1072 deaths per 100,000 lives).
As it stands, Liberia ranks seventh in the world for countries with worst maternity and newborn death and third in Africa. This means the maternal death rate has continued to increase since the year 2000.
Addressing a group of lawmakers headed by the Chairman of the House Standing Committee on Health, Rep. Joseph N. Somwarbi (Nimba Co. Dist. #3) at the Capitol recently, the acting Executive Director of PaSD, David P. Flomo challenged the House of Representatives to create budget lines for reproductive maternal, newborn child and adolescent health (RMNCH).
Also joined by Rep. Somwarbi at the round-table discussion held in the conference room of House Speaker Bhofal Chambers were Reps. Julie Wiah (Lofa Co. Dist. #2), Chairperson on Gender, Equity, Child Development and Social Services and member of the Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Development Planning; Rosana Schaack (Rivercess Co. Dist. #1), Chairperson of the Women Legislative Caucus and member of the Ways, Means, Finance and Development Planning Committee and Byron Zahnwea (Rivercess #2), member of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Committee.
Mr. Flomo noted that increasing the national budget of health to 15% and creating budget lines to accelerate and reduce maternal mortality, promote sexual, reproductive and child health will improve the healthcare delivery system.
The move will be vital to achieving universal health coverage by 2030 as proposed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
It will also serve as a major milestone in helping Liberia meets some of its international commitments to health including the Abuja declaration.
In 2001, member states of the African Union during a conference in Abuja, Nigeria pledged to increase their health budget by at least 15 percent of their respective country’s budgets while pleading with Western donor countries to increase their support as well.
“Where budget allocation for the health system is increased and properly accounted for, there will be significant reduction in and out of pocket payment,” Flomo said.
“An improved healthcare delivery system is vital to achieving universal health coverage by 2030 as proposed in the SDGS. And increase in health financing is also necessary to train more healthcare workers and build and equip health facility with drugs and other essential medical supplies.”
Giving further statistics, Flomo noted that mortality rate of children under five years of age per 1,000 live births in Liberia is 94; and the total fertility rate of births per woman stood at 4.5 in 2018; while 26% of adolescent pregnancies are unintended and 30 percent ends in unsafe abortion.
He added that infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births is 54; teenage pregnancy rate, which is among the highest in the sub-region, stands at 31%; meaning, three in every 10 teens are pregnant.
PaSD was also joined by one of its major partners, Save the Children represented by its County Health Coordinator, Jacob F. Tengbeh.
Tengbeh called on the government to provide access to skilled birth attendants and equipped facilities with emergency obstetric; stressing that newborn care is core requirements for pregnant women.
Lawmakers’ Response
Meanwhile, in separate remarks, Reps. Somwarbi, Wiah, Schaack and Zahnwea lauded PaSD for the advocacy and pledged their commitments to ensuring most the recommendations are captured in the Fiscal Year 2019/2020 budget that is expected to be submitted shortly to the Legislature by the Executive.
In order for that to happen, the lawmakers called on the civil society group to reduce the recommendations to proper documentation that will guide them (lawmakers) in their advocacy during the budget debates.
Rep. Somwarbi noted that because of a tight budget, Liberia cannot implement all of its international commitment but owing to the alarming rate of maternal mortality, vowed, with support from his colleagues to champion budgetary support in helping to curb it.
He, however, called on civil society organizations to help in monitoring the resources given to the health sector to ensure its proper management.