By Princess Eugene Majuru
Harare, Zimbabwe ( News of The South) – The Ministry of Finance’s allocation to the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) in the latest Zimbabwe National Budget estimated at around 10.8% for 2024 and projected lower for 2025 is a flashpoint in a prolonged national crisis. While the government maintains a commitment to increasing domestic health funding, the persistent failure to meet the 15% Abuja Declaration target translates not just into a fiscal shortfall, but a direct threat to the lives of ordinary citizens.
The challenge for Zimbabwe is not merely a funding gap; it is a misalignment of priorities. For the budget to translate into tangible, improved service delivery, three fundamental, human-centered issues must take priority over all other spending.
1. The Human Resource Crisis: Stop the Brain Drain
The most critical factor crippling Zimbabwe’s health system is the acute shortage of skilled personnel. A large percentage of districts report an acute shortage of doctors, nurses, and specialists. This “brain drain” is directly fueled by non-competitive salaries and poor working conditions.
Priority Spending: The budget must ring-fence sufficient currency to ensure competitive and stable remuneration for all health professionals, especially those in rural areas. When budgets are executed, the value allocated for salaries is often eroded by currency instability, creating a continuous push factor for staff to seek employment outside the country.
Service Impact: You cannot rehabilitate a hospital without the staff to run it. Prioritising people over concrete ensuring the doctor stays is the single most effective way to restore public trust and guarantee service availability at district and central levels.
2. Primary Care and Drug Supply: The Foundations of Survival
The budget analysis reveals a spending bias that often favors urban-based, higher-level facilities (central hospitals) over the Primary Health Care (PHC) system. Yet, PHC the rural health centers and clinics is the frontline that prevents minor illnesses from becoming fatal emergencies.
Priority Spending: Funds must be dramatically shifted to guarantee the uninterrupted availability of essential medical drugs and supplies at the local level. Current survey data shows a poor supply of drugs in many sampled districts. This is often linked to procurement inefficiencies, governance lapses, and corruption along the supply chain.
Service Impact: Maternal and child health security is directly linked to PHC effectiveness. A lack of basic medicines and reliable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure at the clinic level contributes to high maternal mortality rates and is directly responsible for outbreaks like cholera, an ongoing threat that requires significantly more funding (above the current low allocation toward WASH).
3. Accountability and Execution: Closing the Leaks
Even when funds are allocated, poor financial management and delayed disbursement undermine service delivery. Reports show substantial budget underutilization and that the Ministry of Health often receives a small fraction of its total allocation during the first half of the year. Furthermore, the sector faces constant issues related to procurement corruption and lack of transparency.
The budget must allocate resources to strengthen institutional oversight and anti-corruption mechanisms within the MoHCC, especially in procurement. Furthermore, there must be a legally binding mechanism to ensure the timely and predictable disbursement of funds to facilities to shield them from currency volatility.
Service Impact: Allocating funds to construction of new clinics (an identified priority) is meaningless if the money is not released on time or if procurement processes are flawed. Accountability ensures that every dollar allocated actually reaches the patient in the form of a needed drug, a working piece of equipment, or a reliable facility.
The new Zimbabwe budget, while increasing overall health funding in nominal terms, continues to face a crisis of prioritization. The road to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) will remain blocked until the government commits to prioritizing the stability of its workforce, the sufficiency of its drug supply, and the integrity of its financial systems.
Comments
About Author
