Health programme to get $105m more aid
Naimul Haq
The Ministry of Health will receive a supplementary fund of $105 million, in addition to $200 million already committed by the World Bank last week, for the on-going Health, Nutrition, Population Sector Programme (HNPSP), official sources told The Daily Star.The World Bank in the US capital Washington DC last week made the commitment of the additional fund at a negotiation meeting with a delegation of the Ministry of Health led by Health Secretary AFM Sarwar Kamal. "The World Bank felt that the implementation of the HNPSP programme was satisfactory in Bangladesh. The authority specially appreciated the health ministry's regular allocation of at least 68 per cent of the total healthcare budget for the poor at primary healthcare (PHC) level and scaling up essential service delivery (ESD) focus on the mother and child health," Sarwar Kamal told The Daily Star. He said, "Since the launching of the HNPSP in July 2004, we have adopted special action plans enhancing attention to address issues like emergency obstetric care (EOC), for which we have improved the union health centres and the Mother and Child Welfare Centres (MCWC). Very recently we trained Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs) across the country to ensure safe delivery at home to increase home delivery coverage from the existing 13 to at least 70 per cent. In fact, we are also equipping the SBAs with basic tools and kits for safe delivery in the rural settings." Towards improving the child healthcare the ministry recently adopted new strategies under a new programme called the Integrated Management of Child Illness to increase coverage for tuberculosis, measles, vaccination and nutrition programme. In addition to these strategies, the health ministry has allocated special funds for the training of manpower particularly the nurses and doctors. Referring to the previous five-year health programme (HPSP) the health secretary said, "For training purposes we have increased the fund for the HNPSP at least by 50 per cent compared to that of the HPSP. Similarly, for research we have enhanced the allocation from 0.4 per cent to 2 per cent." The World Bank has also assured the visiting delegation of 'bonus' funds if performance of the ministry continues to improve. Out of a total of $2.9 billion for the next five-year HNPSP (up to 2010), the development partners have committed $900 million while two-thirds of the rest would be spent from the government's own exchequer and the rest from the World Bank.
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