You’re Excellencies ambassadors
High commissioners
Members of Executive Councils for Health
Development counsellors
United Nations Resident Representative, Dr Agostinha Zacarias
Representatives of Development Partners within the United Nations agencies
Heads of provincial Departments of Health
Deputy directors-general of the national Department of Health
Cluster managers from the national Department of Health
Senior managers and officials of the Department of Health
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the 2009 annual consultation meeting whose main purpose is to continue to strengthen the partnerships between us, our Development Partners and the government of South Africa. The role that you, our Development Partners, are playing to support South African national health systems is highly appreciated.
Information sharing forms part of the key objectives for our partnership. Despite the fact that South Africa has developed the Official Development Assistant (ODA) policy framework, which affected the ODA coordination mechanisms and systems, and also the existence of other systems that were put in place, like the joint country cooperation strategy, the South Africa and European Union country cooperation strategy and the South Africa and United Nations development assistance framework, we are still experiencing challenges with regards to the flow of information. In many instances information flow is inadequate and not well structured. In response to the above challenge we are in the process of establishing ODA database to ensure that we close the gaps for better coordination and management of the ODA resources.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to remind you of the vision of the Department of Health in South Africa, which is “An accessible, caring and high quality health system”. To achieve this vision, the Department of Health has set goals and developed strategies, which amongst others are to:
* improve health status through the prevention of illnesses and the promotion of healthy lifestyles
* consistently improve the health care delivery system by focusing on access, equity, efficiency, quality and sustainability and
* improve health outcomes and accelerate progress towards meeting the millennium development goals.
It is our statutory requirement that every five years each government department identifies priorities and develops a strategic plan to address such priorities. On 3 June 2009, during state of the nation address, President Jacob Zuma articulated the following issues:
* A seriously concerned about the deterioration of the quality of health care, aggravated by the steady increase in the burden of disease in the past decade and a half
* Goals have been set for further reducing inequalities in health care provision, to boost human resource capacity, revitalise hospitals and clinics and step up the fight against the scourge of HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and other diseases
* A call to South Africans and partners to work together to improve the implementation of the comprehensive plan for the treatment, management and care of HIV and AIDS so as to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50 percent by the year 2011 and to reach 80 percent of those in need of antiretroviral treatment by 2011.
* A plan to implement a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme in a phased and incremental manner. In order to initiate the NHI, the urgent rehabilitation of public hospitals will be undertaken
* Paying urgent attention to the issues of remuneration of health professionals to remove uncertainty in our health services and lastly
* A call to working together, we need to do more to promote quality health care, in line with the United Nations millennium development goals to halve poverty by 2014.
In pursuit of these goals, our government has identified 10 priority areas, which form part of our medium term strategic framework (MTSF) for 2009 to 2014.
Government has adopted ten key priorities for this term of governance. This ten point plan is the basis of the health sector 2009 Program of Action. The said key priorities are as follows:
* provision of strategic leadership and creation of a social compact for better health outcomes
* implementation of a National Health Insurance plan
* improving quality of services
* over-hauling the health care system and improve its management
* improving human resources
* revitalisation of infrastructure
* accelerated implementation of HIV and AIDS plan and reduction of mortality due to TB and other communicable diseases
* mass mobilisation for better health for the population
* review of the drug policy
* strengthening research and development
Once more, on behalf of the South African government, I would like to extend our sincere appreciation for the continued support that you are providing to us. Your support is a necessary tool that assists us to deal with problems and challenges that impact on our society because of the burden of preventable, avoidable and treatable diseases. Your support strengthens our ability to positively affect growth and development in South Africa and the rest the African continent.
The active involvement and commitment of your respective governments to us, South Africans, is highly appreciated. The evidence to this important partnership is positively reflected by your contributions to South Africa’s effort to address the health sector priorities across the whole spectrum and to our set targets as per our national strategic plan and that of the United Nations millennium development goals as set during World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa in 2002.
We have identified 18 priority health districts for intensive work. These districts were chosen because they have poor health status, health service delivery and poor access to health services. These districts have been ranked using key indicators data on which are readily available, mostly through the district health information system. These are: deprivation index, as reported in the district health barometer, percentage of pregnant women tested for HIV, immunisation coverage at one year of age, percentage of deliveries which take place in a health facility and vitamin A supplementation coverage in the one to five years old children.
The fourteen worst performing districts are located within five provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. For the Free State and Gauteng, the districts with the highest ranking were chosen. Within each of the districts, the sub-districts with the highest deprivation index were identified using information from the 2007 community survey.
Your contribution to the developmental goals of our country is continuously making it possible for South Africa to make significant progress in redressing the imbalances in the health sector. Your provision of scholarships, facilities, equipment, exchange programs and technical assistance helps us to improve our health sector.
In addition to the above we highly appreciate your provision of financial resources through your support of various programs. It would not be possible to scale up of care and treatment aimed at communicable diseases control. That includes your support to HIV prevention through voluntary counselling and testing VCT one and VCT two, partnership for the delivery of primary healthcare including HIV and AIDS and your support to the South African comprehensive plan for HIV and AIDS.
We also appreciate your support for programs aimed at strengthening partnerships at regional, sub regional and national levels, provision of short courses in your respective countries, strengthened South Africa’s capacity to increase access to sustainable, high quality and cost effective interventions and promotion of operational research.
Honourable Development Partners, the battle against the burden of diseases is still on and rough in Africa, because the countries in the region continue to face inadequate financing, shortage of human resource, inadequate access to essential medicines and health technology, and inadequate access to safe blood. In some cases, the greatest challenge is poor leadership.
In May 2009 during the experts meeting of the fourth session of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Health held at the African Union Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Chairperson of the African Union emphasised in his report that “Africa still faces an immense challenge due to the disease burden, and that effective implementation depends on strong health systems”.
The need to address neglected tropical diseases and social determinants of disease was reiterated. The need to closely collaborate with partners was also emphasised. The report focused on the following issues: health millennium development goals, Africa health strategy, pharmaceutical manufacturing plan, special session of Health Ministers (2008), update on HIV and AIDS, TB and malaria, population and sexual and reproductive health and rights, food and nutrition, traditional medicine and polio eradication. The African Union and other stakeholders were requested to play their respective roles in following up on the recommendations of the conference of Ministers of Health.
In conclusion, let me reiterate our appreciation of the support that you are providing to the ministry, the Department of Health and to the government and people of South Africa. We have pursued our Program of Action with the diligence expected of us responding to what the President of our country, His Excellency President Jacob Zuma, said during his inauguration on 9 May 2009 that:
“For as long as there are South Africans who die from preventable disease, for as long as there are workers who struggle to feed their families and who battle to find work, for as long as there are communities without clean water, decent shelter or proper sanitation, we shall not rest, and we dare not falter, in our drive to eradicate poverty”.
We are convinced that this partnership that has thrived over the years continues to be of great benefit to all our people, as together we have done and will continue to do more.
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Health
9 December 2009
