Legislators from across Africa have committed to mobilising for domestic funding for health programmes such as HIV, TB and malaria.
Members of Parliament have been meeting in Nairobi to discuss the importance of domestic resource mobilisation to finance health in Africa.
This will be to fill in the gap left after funding from Global Fund.
They include MPs from Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, DRC, Ghana, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Zambia, Kenya and Zimbamwe.
Through this, the resources will be directed to strengthening health systems, preventing new infections of HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria hence saving lives.
In a joint communiqué read on their behalf by Zambia MP Daniel Molokele, they have further committed to advocating for community health strengthening.
This, they said, will ensure community health workers are recognised while at the same time supporting community health responses and ensuring rights and gender considerations in HIV, TB and malaria programmes.
“We commit to advocate for the incorporation of Universal Health Coverage as a goal in the national health policy frameworks, strategically connected to broader inter-ministerial priorities such as emergency preparedness, social stability, climate, economy and finance,” the communiqué said.
They have recommended that African countries work with MPs, civil society and the private sector to implement sustainable strategies to mobilise domestic resources and ensure significant increases in health budgets.
Global Fund is the second-biggest donor toward HIV services in Kenya after the US Pepfar.
Approximately 60 per cent of the Global Fund grant goes towards procuring ARVs and health products, mostly from abroad.
