Harare, 21 Sept. 2015 - WHO Representative to Zimbabwe, Dr David Okello yesterday paid a courtesy call to the new Deputy Minister for Health and Child Care, Mr Aldrin Musiiwa at his Kaguvi Building office.  Prior to his appointment, Mr Musiiwa has been a Member of Parliament for Chakari Constituency in Mashonaland West Province, and was a member of the Health Portfolio Committee in Parliament. The new Deputy Minister assumed his new position earlier this month following the recent cabinet reshuffles.

Dr Okello congratulated the new Deputy Minister and told him that WHO is committed to working with the Government of Zimbabwe for the health of all Zimbabweans, and pledged WHO’s support to all health initiatives aimed at improving the health of Zimbabweans. Dr Okello raised 2 critical issues to the Deputy Minister that he requested the Deputy Minister to  look into and help lobby for. These are:

• Prevention as a key strategy for dealing with the health challenges in the country
• Addressing the dwindling budget allocation to the health sector.

Dr Okello said he would really appreciate if the Honorable Deputy Minister would lobby for the 2 issues.  He said the gradual decrease of the allocation for health in the national budget is worrying and he would appreciate it if the Deputy Minister would help lobby for an increase in the allocation  to the health sector from the Government budget as well as from development partners working in the country.

Mr Musiiwa welcomed Dr Okello to his office and promised to uphold the great relationship between the Ministry of Health and Child Care and WHO. He said the 2 issues mentioned by WR are issues that he is also interested in pushing forward. He said prevention is an important strategy which will save the Ministry of Health a lot of money and resources that would be used to treat diseases and react to outbreaks. He also expressed concern at the dwindling budget for health and said what is even more worrying to him is the gradual decrease in the actual disbursement of funds to the Ministry of Health and Child Care. Mr Musiiwa said he will use his new office to lobby for these and other health issues

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For more information, please contact:

JULIAS Wendy, Email: juliasw [at] who.int