Namibia among top 10 African health spenders
NAMIBIA is among only 10 countries in Africa that have consistently spent above 12 per cent of their total government spending on health, a new report released by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said.
It said the total expenditure on health as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product rose to more to 30 per cent and more in Namibia between 2001 and 2007. Other countries recording the same levels of spending against GDP were Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi.
However, Namibia’s health spending had dropped significantly between 2004 and 2007.
The report said government spending on healthcare, as a percentage of national expenses, rose just 0,3 per cent from 2001 to 2007 in Africa, while donor funding over the same time increased from 15,3 to 20,1 per cent.
The review was done on the health spending of 52 African countries.
In 2001, eight African countries spent five per cent or less of their total government expenditure on health, 27 countries spent between five per cent and 9,9 per cent and 17 countries spent above 10 per cent of their national budgets on health.
“No country spent more than 15 per cent of their total budget on health expenditures,” the report said.
By 2007 (the last full year for which data was available), only three countries (Djibouti 15,1 per cent, Botswana 17,3 per cent and Rwanda 18,8 per cent) had met the Abuja target.
The Abuja target was a commitment made by countries to spend 15 per cent of the total government expenditure on health.
The report said Namibia, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Gabon, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda and Tanzania had consistently allocated an average of 12 per cent of total budget to health.
At the opposite end, the average allocations to health of Angola, Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea Bissau and Nigeria between 20012 and 2007 were less than five per cent of total government expenditure.
Liberia and Malawi had exceeded the target in 2006 at 16,4 and 18 per cent, but then dropped to 6,4 and 12,1 per cent in 2007.
The report said Botswana and Rwanda had the biggest jumps in healthcare spending as a percentage of overall expenses from 1999 to 2007 – 8,9 and 9,7 per cent, while Ghana and Benin had the largest drops – 6,1 and 3,6 per cent.
Credit: www.namibian.com.na