The Ministry of Health has admitted having some difficulty in tackling some of the Millennium Development Goals as they are too complex.
“With the country left with less than two years to reach the entire Millennium Development Goal target set by government, the ministry is trying hard to re-position itself on Millennium Development Goal 4 and 5, which deal directly with health issues,” said Health Minister, John Seakgosing.
He added that, as an effort to assist Batswana, the European Union allocated over P100 million to help Botswana achieve some of its Millennium Development Goals, particularly reduction in maternal and child mortality rates, which the country is struggling to achieve.
Speaking at a ceremony last week during the Ministry of Health’s handover of EU Project, P100 million Fund to Ministry of Health to tackle the two Goals lagging behind, Seakgosing said that Botswana is on course towards achieving most of the 8 Millennium Development Goals.
The minister indicated that the country was still lagging behind on MDG 4 and 5, aimed at the reduction of child mortality and improving maternal health, which the country is unlikely to achieve by 2015.
“With the current poor indicators on maternal and under 5 years mortality, it is clear that time has come for us to review and revise our health delivery to address the bottlenecks hampering the desired improvement in the childhood and maternal mortality indicators,” said Seakgosing.
He added that the funding will assist in reducing the number of silent tragedies that follow in the wake of the death of a mother or a child, emphasizing that the funds will also contribute towards enhancing community health practices, strengthening child health and emergency skills at health facilities.
“The funding will improve the quality of care given to pregnant mothers at time of delivery through the Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care training and soon to be introduced Quality Improvement initiative to reduce maternal mortality,” said Seakgosing.
EU Ambassador, Gerard McGovern, said there is a lot that Botswana government still needs to achieve.
He said in assessing Botswana’s progress towards the MDGs, there is a lot to be proud of except the reduction in maternal and under-five mortality figures by end of 2015.
Botswana needs to tackle system-related issues, particularly basic health practices at community level.
“The EU MDG Initiative in funding was established in 2010 to assist development partners in accelerating progress to reach the goals where they are facing challenges,” said Mc Govern.
Shenaaz El-Halabi, the Deputy Permanent Secretary under the Preventive-Health Services, said they acknowledged the findings conducted by the University of Botswana and UNICEF, 2012 Report on the Reflection on Children in Botswana-Thari ya bana, saying the ministry is doing everything to rectify the situation.
The report says over the 11-year-period, (1996-2007), the prevalence of underweightness had been reduced by 4 percent from 17 percent in 1996 to 13 perfect in 2007. Over the same period, child mortality increased from 45 per 1000 live births in 1996 to 76 per 1000 live in 2007, which is a reflection that government still need more to do in archiving MDG 4 and 5.
