Health workers’ shortage threatens SDG three
Malawi Government has said it will achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG) number three by embracing the result-based financing for maternal and newborn health (RBF4MNH) approach country wide.
Chief Director in the Ministry of Health, Chimwemwe Banda, said Rwanda has been able to achieve health for all by scaling up the RBF4MNH initiative which is a programme designed to help poor people to live healthier lives by linking predetermined results to incentives.
Speaking when Options presented over K50million in rewards to the RBF4MNH participating districts of Mchinji, Dedza, Balaka and Ntcheu, Banda said statistics from the 33 health facilities in the programme’s pilot phase indicate a considerable reduction in the maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.
“The programme has done exceedingly well in Rwanda and Malawi government in partnership with the Germany and Royal Norwegian governments believe this is the way to go if Malawi is to improve the quality of health care delivery services,” Banda said.
She said in a country like Malawi with limited resources, paying for results was the only way to maximise the impact of every Kwacha spent within the health care system.
RBF4MNH Country Director, Matthew Nviiri, said the country can miss out on SDG three if the programme is not scaled up to other districts that have high maternal and newborn mortalities in Malawi.
“The four participating districts are contributing to the overall indicators of the country and while waiting for government to reach out to other partners to scale up the initiative, RBF4MNH will focus in the four districts to ensure there are zero maternal and newborn deaths,” Nviiri said.
Chief Kachindamoto, a member of RBF4MNH advocacy and promotion committee, said shortage of staff which results in high workload, limited funding and huge staff turnover affects the programme.
Of the K50million rewards in the RBF4MNH 8th Cycle that run from October to December, 2015, 70 percent will be shared among health workers directly involved in maternal services delivery while 30 percent will be used in investing in their respective health facilities to buy essential drugs, medical equipment and infection control materials.
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