05 Mar 2013

 

Issues of national health have always been paramount to government’s development agenda since 1966 because health is central to development, President Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama has said.

President Khama told delegates of a High-Level Dialogue on Health in the Post-2015 Development Agenda meeting on Tuesday (March 5) that Botswana has always prioritised health issues from the time it gained independence.

The two-day meeting, attended by 50 senior officials and experts including heads of the United Nations agencies, commenced at the Gaborone International Convention Centre on Tuesday morning.

The meeting was part of a UN-led global conversation on development goals that the global community should set after the 2015 deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) elapses.

President Khama noted that Botswana has reaped benefits after putting the health sector among its priority areas for the past four decades.

“We prioritised health and education, and have had the good fortune of a stable political environment and steady economic growth. From very humble beginnings, the first two decades after our independence demonstrated how investing in health, education, provision of essential social services, and infrastructural development as key components of our socio-economic development, can improve some of the health indicators,” President Khama said.

He said health was central to development.  “The clear message as we consider the post 2015 development agenda is that health must be considered within the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication, and other determinants.

Therefore in the post 2015 development agenda the linkages between health and development should be more clearly articulated, more visible and supported by a policy framework that reflects these linkages between health and other sectors to drive the new development agenda.”

President Khama explained that the country achieved progress within the first two decades of independence because of emphasis on the health sector. However, he noted that the progress was curtailed by subsequent two and a half decades of HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“As a country we had a difficult choice; to surrender the development progress to HIV/AIDS; or to fight back and mount a robust response notwithstanding the enormous financial investment and sacrifices in other areas of development that this would require. We are anxious to ensure that we would be better prepared for the next two decades than we were for the onslaught of HIV/AIDS,” the President said.

The President advised that much would still need to be done after 2015 to sustain gains in the health sector made by low and middle income countries including Botswana.

“What will be important for the future agenda going forward, is that the contextual factors around health and its relationship to broader human development are now better appreciated at all levels of society, and therefore the opportunity exists for the global community to define a framework and path that benefits from the lessons of the MDGs and other sustainable development efforts.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Phandu Skelemani said the importance of shaping health goals beyond 2015 could not be over-emphasised. He said the process was critical in that it would also shape the political agenda and influence resource allocation.

Consultations on the post-2015 development agenda were carried out in an extensive and inclusive nature. The health thematic consultations which began in October 2012 included a participatory process with inputs from a broad range of stakeholders that included member states, civil society, online surveys, face to face and web-based consultations.

The output of the meeting will be recommendations on the future direction of health in the post-2015 development agenda. These will be included in a report to be submitted to the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on Health in the post-2015 development agenda. ENDS