Ministry sets up system to monitor health spending

THE Ministry of Health and Social Services on Monday launched its third National Health Accounts (NHA) exercise to provide a detailed account of health spending for the years 2007-8 and 2008-9.

The NHA is an internationally recognised framework that measures health expenditure, and tracks spending on healthcare.Among others, it will allow the Ministry ‘to estimate total health expenditure in Namibia, to monitor the use of programme funds, to identify potential areas for resource mobilisation, to evaluate expenditure against priorities’ in the sector.The Director for Policy Planning at the Ministry, Celina Usiku, said that data extracted from the exercise, could be used to ‘advocate for additional resources to the health sector, to realign health sector resources to priority areas, to inform on how the health sector resources are aligned to sector (and national) goals, and to guide health sector reviews and health sector plans development’.She also noted that the data would help to inform the financial and policy planning of the Ministry, the HIV-AIDS response, and other key areas.New in this round will be sub-accounts for tracking expenditure on Reproductive Health and HIV-AIDS, as well as the linking of the HIV-AIDS sub-account to the National AIDS Spending Assessment (Nasa).Speaking at the launch of the third round, Deputy Health Minister Petrina Haingura praised the NHA, saying ‘informed decision-making requires reliable information on the quantity of financial resources used for health’.She also applauded the new components of this NHA, in terms of the two sub-accounts.’Namibia has signed up to international declarations and set targets for curbing the spread of HIV-AIDS, mitigating its impact, and extending treatment access. The tracing of HIV-AIDS expenditures that reflect the continuum of services employed in the fight against the epidemic is therefore long overdue,’ she said.With regard to reproductive health, Haingura stated that both maternal and child mortality had increased over the past few years, adding that the sub-account would ‘help examine spending levels and patterns for reproductive healthcare in particular family planning, prenatal care, and delivery’.It is expected that data gathering – which will involve enumerators visiting companies, medical aid schemes, NGOs, development partners and government ministries – and the report, will be completed by May next year. Representatives of the United Stated Agency for International Development, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organisation – partners of the Ministry in this process – were also present at the launch.They too applauded the launch of the NHA exercise, with USAID Mission Director, Gregory Gottlieb, calling for the institutionalisation of the resource tracking process.’It is our view that these efforts will lead directly to greater accountability, transparency, co-ordination, and informed policy decisions that will shape the future of Namibia’s health system for decades to come,’ he said.nangula@namibian.com.na