A high level delegation from the African Development Bank (AfDB) has arrived in Malawi as part of its two-week consultative mission to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region member states to validate its strategy for Quality Health Infrastructure in Africa 2021-2030.
The strategy aims to support African countries accelerate the development of quality health infrastructure and ensure that citizens receive health services they need without financial hardship, thereby contributing towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 and the Africa Agenda 2063.
The development of the strategy followed a call by the governors of the bank at their annual meetings in August 2020, in which a request was made to the bank to define its role in addressing Africa’s health infrastructure deficits, drawing on its core expertise in infrastructure development.
Coming against the backdrop of Covid pandemic, the request recognised the centrality of health to improving the quality of life of Africans and enabling them to achieve their full potential.
Covid pandemic created equality in seeking health care in Africa. Both the rich and the poor remain in the country for medication, which demands member countries to invest in health.
Speaking on arrival in Lilongwe, AfDB Director for Human Capital Development, Youth and Skills Development Martha Phiri said the bank serves Africans and they need to be included in the process of developing the strategy.
“All the initiatives at the Bank are relevant to Africans and this being a health strategy, it is very important to seek their inputs into it and check if it meets the needs of Africans before presenting it to the Board of Directors in December 2021,” she said.
The consultations are simultaneously taking place in Sadc and Economic Community of West African States, before European Citizen Action Service, Central Africa and North Africa.
In Malawi, the mission will also interact with beneficiaries of AfDB Health Infrastructure Project in Mzuzu, Salima, Blantyre and Phalombe district where the bank is supporting the construction of district hospitals.