2 April 2007
Addis Ababa — On the eve of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to begin today in Addis Ababa, the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance (APHRA) called on the meeting to make financing the resolution of Africa's Public Health catastrophe its top agenda.
The Alliance and its "15% Now" Campaign states necessary budget should be allocated to curb the existing shortage of health workers in the continent.
"On a continent where over 8 million citizens die annually from preventable, treatable or manageable health conditions, it will be impossible for the Ministerial conference to come up with any realistic strategies to meet the MDG's without introducing and placing at the top of their agenda, the financing of Public health strategies to tackle major killers like maternal mortality, child mortality, HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria amongst others," campaign Coordinator Rotimi Sankore said in a statement on Sunday.
"Even if it means reducing the defence budgets that routinely soak up to 20% to 35% of annual budgets it has to be done," he noted.
"Africa is short of about a million health workers and the only armies we need right now are armies of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals," he added.
Rotimi abhorred the 2-day conference set to discuss ways to accelerate growth so that the continent could meet MDGs ignoring issues related to financing Africa's health problems.
"It is disappointing that in a conference dedicated to meeting the MDG's, not a single agenda session is specifically dedicated to details of financing the resolution of Africa's health catastrophe," he said.
The conference under the theme "Accelerating Africa's growth and Development to meet the MDG's: Emerging Challenges and the way forward" is expected to discus, among others, growth, employment, financing and public sector, economic performance.
According to the coordinator, neither the detailed 2007 Conference Annual Report, nor the 2006 Overview of Economic and Social Developments in Africa dedicate a single chapter or section to public health.
"It is embarrassing that we even have to look within the sections to find the references to HIV," he observed.
The Africa Public Health Rights Alliance [and the "15% Now!" campaign] launched on December 10 2006 - International Human Rights Day - is the first to articulate Public Health for Africa as a Rights and Development issue across Africa and beyond.
It brings together actors from various key sectors of civil society.
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