09 Jan 2019

Botswana supports pooled procurement services for medicines and health commodities as it would reduce prices of such commodities.

Speaking in an interview with BOPA, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Madigele said progress made on the operationalisation of the SADC pooled procurement services for medicines and health commodities was noted at the SADC Ministers of Health meeting in Namibia last November

He said they had realised that when they procured as individual member states, it became expensive compared to when they bought in bulk and divided according to their needs.

Dr Madigele said such small nations as Botswana, Namibia, eSwatini and Lesotho tended  to benefit more from the bulk procurement as it gave them the muscle to negotiate with medicine manufacturers.

On other issues, the minister said the meeting also approved the roadmap towards the development of a Regional Food Fortification Regulatory Framework and capacity building of the member states as well as the development of the regional standards on the code of marketing breast milk substitutes and maternity protection.

He said they came up with the food fortification regulation after realising that it was only based on private companies and said the arrangement was not serving the desired purpose as most of the food stuffs were not beneficial to infants.

Dr Madigele said the food fortification process in Botswana would be done on regional basis as the ministry had found out that for instance children in the Gantsi area were not lacking the same nutrients that were needed by children in the Chobe area and as such the kinds of supplements that they need may differ from area to area.

He said they also approved the SADC Strategy for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in the SADC region from 2019-2030 and the score card with its indicators.

He urged member states to implement the strategy in the context of their national laws and to report timeously on the indicators of the score card.

Dr Madigele said they studied the report of the implementation of the SADC HIV/AIDS Cross Border Initiative and urged member states to mobilise resources to sustain the operation of wellness clinics along border posts. Ends