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MHEN says blackouts affecting health service in Malawi calls for increased budgetary support

LILONGWE (Maravi Post)–Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN), which was formed in 2000, in its bid to spearhead health activism, has urged Government to find alternative source of energy in order to fully wipe blackouts which are affecting health services in the country.
MEHN Executive Director, George Jobe appealed to Government to complete Kammwamba project with speed in order to help hospitals which are undergoing difficult time especially during at theatre department.
“imagine someone is undergoing operation at the theatre or is on the life support machine and power goes off, it means those people will die because not every hospital has a standby generator.” said Jobe.
Jobe said that is why as a network they have been calling for adequate budgetary support to Ministry of health in line with Abujah Declaration of 15 Percent.  
Jobe said currently, Malawi is on 10 Percent which is not enough.
Jobe said electricity is very important in running the daily hospital activities.
“Laundry and Kitchen services also depend on electricity, so we are appealing to Government to end these blackouts quickly, we are also appealing to hospitals to at least own standby generator with automatic switch, ” Said Jobe.
  all people in Malawi.  The current membership is about 50 organizations, associations, coalitions, training institutions andhealth professionals.
MHEN works to improve the distribution, quality and access to health services throughout Malawi by influencing government policy and practice, as well as activities of donors and civil society through advocacy, networking, research, information dissemination and budget monitoring.
MHEN also  advocate and lobby for the health policies and systems that promote the delivery of equitable and quality health care services by influencing policy and practice through research, monitoring and evaluation.
Since its inception, MHEN has been advocating for increased national and district budgetary allocation to the health sector in line with regional and international obligations such as those relating to the African Union (Abuja Declaration, Africa Health Strategy and Maputo Plan of Action), the United Nations (Millennium Development Goals) and national over-arching policies such as the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy II (MGDS II) and the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP).
In 2016/17 financial year, total government expenditure is estimated at MK 1,136,961 billion(MK1.1Trillion), which is a nominal increase of about 22% from  the 2015/16 approved budget of MK930 billion.
Of the total expenditure the Recurrent Expenditure is projected at K815 billion and Development Expenditure being pegged at K317 billion out of which K280 billion and K38 billion will be financed by donor partners and the Malawi Government  respectively. The Recurrent Expenditures have been revised upwards by 16.8 percent from the 2015-16 approved budget and this increase is on account of wages and salaries which are expected to increase from K228.7 billion in 2015-16 to K264.5 billion in the 2016-17 Financial Year where  Ministry of Health has been allocated K96 billion representing an increase of 18% over the 2015/16 financial year approved budget.
Commenting on the above budget Jobe said the above figures still are below 15 Percent of Abujah Declaration.
“In terms of share of the national budget, the Ministry has a total percentage share of 8% which is less than the 2015/16 percentage share (9%).In 2016/17 fiscal year, the Central Government Fiscal Transfers to the district councils [CGFT] is projected at K44.6 billion which is an increase of K16.6 billion representing a 64% jump over the 2015/16 (M25.6 billion) financial year approved estimate you can see that we are far below the Abujah Decralation,” said Jobe

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