HIV/AIDS, TB TREATMENT DRAINING HEALTH BUDGET

MBABANE – What is the money allocated to the Ministry of Health used for?

This question follows that despite being the most donor funded ministry, it has been rocked by woes for sometime, with startling allegations made against Minister Sibongile Simelane.
Recently, the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, through the 2015/16 external assistance by development partners in Swaziland, noted that the health sector received the highest proportion of the country’s external assistance.

The country received E841 766 250. Despite being 47 per cent of the donor funding directed into the country, the fiscal budget awarded by the minister of Finance to this ministry is over E1. 6 billion, which doubles what external contributors offer the country.
Most of the amount donated went to support the national response on HIV/AIDS and TB in the areas of prevention, treatment and mitigation of the impact of the epidemics on the country’s population.
From the government’s National Budget allocation, the health sector received only 11 per cent of government’s expenditure.

According to the report, the country’s external assistance continued to make an important contribution to the overall resource envelope available for financing measures that improve the country’s development status.
In 2015/2016, the country’s external assistance was the equivalent of around E1 592.88 per person.

The report also stated that this assistance constituted around 13 per cent of government revenue, excluding external financing; a higher proportion than in 2014/15 due to dormant revenue growth.
In terms of the local economy, external assistance represented around 3.6 per cent of Swaziland’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which declined on a US Dollar basis following the weakening of the Lilangeni against the US Dollar in 2015/16.

The United States was the largest contributor towards this sector with over E562 million which is 67 per cent of the total external assistance.
In addition, agriculture is the second largest sector to be funded by the country’s development partners with an allocation of E234.4 million which is 13 per cent of the total external assistance.

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