Government to increase health budget
Malawi has committed to increasing financial allocations for the health budget with 30 percent of it to cater for health of women and children.
The commitment is contained in the Every Newborn Action Plan (Enap), which was endorsed by World Health Assembly in Geneva last month and launchedyesterday at the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) workshop in South Africa.
Spearheaded by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Enap is a roadmap and joint action platform for reduction of preventable newborn deaths.
It aims to save three million lives globally each year by improving quality care at the time of birth, and support for small and sick babies.
Among others, Malawi has pledged to scale up high-impact maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) interventions, strengthen the health system for MNCH, support innovation for reproductive health and MNCH as well as reduce neonatal mortality from 31 per 1 000 births to 25 per 1 000 live births by 2020.
“To achieve this goal, government will work in partnership with all relevantsectors and ministries utilising a multisectoral approach to reach 85 percent of all newborns with essential care services,” reads part of Malawi’s commitment to Enap.
Speaking during the Enap launch, PMNCH chairperson Graca Machel — who was making her first public appearance since her husband, fallen icon Nelson Mandela’s death — said partnerships between the civil society, governments, private sectorand non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which make up the PMNCH, have helped reduce children’s deaths.
“Partnerships have helped us halve the number of children who die under the age of five from largely preventable diseases,” said Machel.
Other governments that have committed to Enap include Bolivia, Cameroon, the United States and Oman.
