DAR ES SALAAM, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank on Monday expressed concern over what it described as laxity by East Africa's ministries of health in healthcare financing.
Khama Rogo, the World Bank's Head of Health in Africa Initiative, said poor financing in healthcare made countries in the region to fail to fulfill the healthcare benchmarks such as the Abuja Declaration which called for committing 15 percent of African governments' budget to healthcare.
Rogo told the East Africa Health Federation Conference in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam that governments in the region needed to come into dialogue with the World Bank on how to better finance the health sector and how to stop people from dying of preventable diseases.
"Every time I hear in East Africa that a person has died of cholera, I agonize. Every time I hear that a leader in East Africa is traveling abroad for treatment, my heart stops," he said.
"Under such conditions, my heart cannot be healthy. We at World Bank are ready to help work with governments to sort out why healthcare financing is still facing challenges," Rogo told the conference that attracted 400 private healthcare leaders from East Africa and beyond.
In his reaction to the World Bank's concerns, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said governments in the region have been striving to put up local health infrastructure that can help solve complex health problems.
"But these governments cannot attain the highest standards provided in high income countries overnight," Kikwete told the conference themed: Health Care Financing: for Sustainable Quality Health Care.
Kikwete appealed to the World Bank to commit more funding for the private health sector.
"Before blaming governments we should ask ourselves how much in loans, does the World Bank extend to the private health sector," queried Kikwete.
