Civil Society Organisation BudgIT Ghana, has called on the government to increase its budget allocation to the health sector to 15% from the current 7%.
The increment in budgetary allocation to the sector, BudgIT Ghana argues, is imperative and critical to the country being able to survive another health-related crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Making the call on government at the launch of two reports on the back of studies done in the areas of health sector accountability and vaccine equity distribution in the country, Research Lead at BudgIT Ghana, Khiddir Iddris, noted that, but for vaccine and monetary donations made to the country, government would have struggled to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Government must increase its budget allocation to the health sector from 7% to 15%, it is important that we do this so that we are able to adequately finance the health sector (sic).
“If we are to beat the next health crisis, we must increase funds to the health sector, because if not for the donations made to government through multilateral and bilateral donors as well as private entities, government would have really struggled to contain the pandemic (sic),” he quipped.
The call for increment in healthcare budget allocation by BudgIT Ghana is in cognizance of the 2001 Abuja Declaration.
Per the declaration, all African Union member states are to commit 15% of their budgets to the health sector of their respective countries.
Healthcare corruption risk matrix
To address corruption and revenue loopholes in the health sector, BudgIT Ghana has proposed the creation of the Corruption Risk Matrix
The proposed creation of the Corruption Risk Matrix is in view of government’s limited fiscal space for which it is unable to meet the required 15% budget allocation to the healthcare sector.
According to BudgIT Ghana, the Corruption Risk Matrix will help expose and seal revenue leakages in the sector.
“Review the roles and functions of the health care delivery process vis-à-vis the possible abuses to paint a corruption risk matrix and mitigating mechanisms,” stated BudgIT Ghana.
Launch of reports on health sector accountability and vaccine equity distribution
BudgIT Ghana on Tuesday, August 16, launched two reports on the back of studies undertaken on Health Sector Transparency and Accountability; and Vaccine Equity and Distribution.
The studies sought to outline problems and related emerging issues and measure changes in different transformational epochs to ultimately inform civil society advocacy towards health sector transparency and vaccine equity.
The two reports are the product of the Covid-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) by BudgIT Ghana.
The CTAP is committed to tracking all resources from the public sector, private, multilateral and bilateral donors committed to fighting the pandemic.
The CTAP also focuses on strengthening institutional and stakeholder engagement for health sector accountability and transparency.
BudgIT Ghana is a civic organization that applies technology to ensure transparency and accountability while intersecting citizen engagement with institutional improvement to facilitate societal change.