Health CS Barasa says government assessing impact of US aid withdrawal

Health Cabinet Secretary Deborah Barasa has tasked departments and directorates to come up with concrete interventions against US budget cuts to foreign aid funding for health programmes.

The CS admitted that the executive order by President Donald Trump has a huge impact on health financing and is seeking interventions to sustain programs. 

Addressing the East Africa region global health security summit at Pride Inn Paradise Resort in Mombasa County, Dr Barasa said the ministry experts will look into the finances, human resources, and response to diseases and how to move forward following the US decision. 

“As a ministry, I have tasked various state departments to map out what is the impact of the executive order in terms of finances, human resources, and diseases and have a concrete way forward in terms of interventions, which will be shared with the Cabinet and the president and have the way forward on matters of interventions,” she said.

The CS asked for a more detailed report on the impact of health funding following the US decision and to share it with the rest of the country later.

The summit organised by the Ministry of Health,  Jumuiya Ya Kaunti Za Pwani (JKP), and the University of Nebraska brought together health experts from seven countries in Eastern Africa.

Health experts warn that fund deductions could disrupt ongoing healthcare efforts. Programmes which have been instrumental in addressing HIV and healthcare governance, are now on hold.

Among the affected initiatives are the United Society Against Fraud, Waste, and Abuse (Usawa) programme and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar).

President Trump withdrew the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO), accusing it of mismanaging the Covid-19 pandemic and promoting China’s disinformation, which he claimed worsened the virus’s spread.

However, a week later, he suggested the possibility of rejoining the WHO, citing the US$500 million (Sh64.7 billion) in annual contributions compared to China’s US$39 million (Sh5 billion), despite China’s population of 1.4 billion. He proposed reducing the US contribution to match China’s.

Yesterday, the regional summit discussed ways of making East Africa and the region safe on matters of health and building resilient health systems and universal health coverage.

Kenya WHO representative Dr Abdourahmane Dialo said there was a need to strengthen primary healthcare, health surveillance, disease detection, and information sharing, noting that ebola became a serious health emergency because of weak community health systems.

“Ebola became severe because the community health system on the ground was very weak. It is important to understand the communities we work with,” he said.

He called for local manufacturing and supply chain management of medical products to strengthen resilience in the region, noting that most countries facing the burden of disease, like the Sahel region, prioritise security in their budgets as opposed to health.

Deputy Director at the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Dr Raji Tajudeen, observed that disease outbreaks begin and end at the community level and called for the strengthening of health systems at the community level.

Tajudeen called for the domestic mobilisation of the finances to fund health programs instead of relying on donor funds that face a threat.

“We also need to manufacture our vaccines instead of relying on goodwill. We should have primary health data because, without it, we are flying blindly,” he noted.

Chairman of the Kenya Biovax Institute Dr Swarup Mishra said the country will roll out a full production of vaccines by 2030 but challenged the government to give his board more than Sh1 billion and land in Eldoret to actualise the plan.

Amref Group Chief Executive Officer Dr Githinji Gitahi said health security also promotes peace and economic security.

He noted that health risks were on the increase due to global warming and climate-related stress, adding that the new US threat to WHO made the summit a watershed moment.

“Communities should be at the centre of local and global action,” he said. He said the Amref University, with a capacity for 10,000 students, seeks to develop the capacity to intervene in health challenges facing the region.

Safaricom’s chief enterprise business officer, Ms Cynthia Kropac, said her organisation has supported primary health care through the provision of smartphones to 110,000 community health promoters to assist in the collection of data.

He also said the firm has supported the government to promote connectivity through the establishment of wifi hotspots across the country.

JKP chief executive officer and chairman of the Vision 2030 board, Dr Emmanuel Nzai, said the summit was organised so as to address preparedness in terms of infectious disease outbreaks and other health emergencies in the region.