New £12 million funding package announced to help make Liberia's commitment to provide free health care
04 October 2009
A new £12 million funding package to help make Liberia’s commitment to provide free health care a reality, was announced today by International Development Minister, Gareth Thomas.
The three year funding package will help to ensure there are improvements in the country’s health system - training more doctors and nurses; providing better equipment and life saving drugs.
In particular, the funding will help to improve the maternal and child mortality rates in Liberia, which are some of the highest in the world.
Last week, at the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown hosted co-hosted a UN event in New York, at which he secured agreement from six countries to remove fees for health services to achieve the goal of universal health care.
This included an announcement from the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to make the suspension of user fees permanent and provide free health care for all.
International Development Minister, Gareth Thomas said:
"Maternal and infant mortality rates in Liberia are of great concern but we welcome the President’s commitment and willingness to tackle the issue head on.
“Poor health and poverty go hand-in-hand and so we must first improve people’s health if we are to improve their lives. This new funding will help save countless lives and ensure the people of Liberia can have free access to a basic level of healthcare.”
Helping the Government of Liberia to improve health services in the country is a key focus of the UK’s aid programme and over the last three years we have provided around £12-14m to deliver improvements in healthcare.
This included £1.5m for Save the Children to carry out the important work they do in Liberia which involves supporting 9 primary health care facilities in Bong and Montserrado counties, as well as support to Ministry of Health to improve maternal and child mortality rates, and to develop a new national health financing policy.
A recent review of the National Health Plan in Liberia confirmed that some progress made to reduce infant and child mortality rates and that they are on track to ensure 40% of all health facilities provide a basic package of health services by end 2009 and that this will increase to 70% by 2011.
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