[procaare] Re: Africa 'will die out before our eyes' (1)

["Maina Kahindo" <mkahindo2003@yahoo.co.uk>]

Re: Africa 'will die out before our eyes' (1)
- Maina Kahindo, Kenya
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While most African governments may not have lived up to their pledge of spending at least 15% of their budgets on health, most of the assessors of this pledge look only at what African governments allocate the Ministries of Health and forget that health is largely delivered through 'non-disease centered ministries' like Ministries of Water, Agriculture, Environment, Housing, Education and other sectors that attempt to uplift social and economic wellbeing of citizens. The assessments should consider what portions of these other ministries' budget go to uplifting the health of citizens. Of course this is a more complicated way but it gives the true and realistic contributions. 

The Ministries of Health in most countries, as someone many years remarked are actually Ministries of illHealth. Of course many African Ministries of Health are undergoing transformation so that they spend more of their budgets on 'preventive care' but I don't think we are yet there. I don't believe increasing budgets to the Ministries of Health is the strategy to improve the health of the citizens; we should also vigorously support the other sectors like water supply.

Dr. Maina Kahindo 
Email: mkahindo2003@yahoo.co.uk
HIV/AIDS Consultant, Nairobi