Juba 20 July, 2018 – With support from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health convened a one day high-level advocacy meeting to define strategic funding priorities for health sector.

During the meeting key donors and other international and national health partners including UN agencies discussed on key programmatic and funding priorities including aligning investments, coordinating operations, identifying synergies and capitalize on potential efficiencies from joint operations.

The participants deliberated on cross cutting priorities which included human resources for health, community health programming through the Boma Health Initiative (BHI), Procurement and Supply Chain Management system, health information system, advocacy, communication and social mobilization, program management.

The Ministry of Health highlighted the overall funding landscape and gap in the health sector especially on human resources for health, District Health Information Software (DHIS 2) roll out, service delivery including BHI, and essential medicines, supplies and diagnostic capacity among others despite the donor support. 

A cross section of multilaterals representing technical partners including WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS spelt out their organizations strategic priorities. The key donors that included GAVI, The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Department for International Development (DFID), The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), World Bank and Canada, fully participated and highlighted their investments in South Sudan health sector.  

DFID presented on the investments and achievements in partnership with European Union, USAID, Canada and Sweden through the health pooled fund 2 and the plan and strategic priorities for the health pooled fund 3 (2019-2023). 

The World Bank outlined its investment in the two former states (Jonglei and Upper Nile) through the Ministry of Health Rapid Results Health Program worth USD103million and the plan for the next round of funding.

During this high level meeting , WHO  gave an overview of the Country Office strategic agenda, country priorities and the global  medium term strategic framework – General Programme of Work 13 (GPW13) (2019-2023) which was approved at the 71st session of World Health Assembly.

The presentation defined goals and priorities of WHO in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) agenda, the three programmatic goals (the triple billion goals) and one corporate goal.

GAVI, the vaccine alliance informed the meeting participants about its current four year (though 31 December 2019) US$ 20.3 million commitment being channeled through WHO and UNICEF. The funding is being used to strengthen health systems including the Boma Health Initiative (BHI) and improve immunization coverage and equity in South Sudan.

This funding builds on previous support from GAVI to South Sudan which includes US$14.7 million invested on new vaccine support such as pentavalent vaccine, inactivated polio vaccine, Meningitis A Vaccine (campaign) and Injection Safety Devices; and US$ 53.2 million for health systems strengthening (HSS), cold chain equipment optimization platform (CCEOP), immunization services support (ISS).

In addition, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) reported on the US$ 86.68 million funding allocation over the next three years and implementation arrangements for the three programs. These include funding towards human resources for health, public health monitoring and evaluation, procurement and supply chain management, service delivery improvement, BHI and community based activities. 

Consensus was built on actions and resolutions to address the bottlenecks, identified gaps and opportunities for synergies and harmonization to strengthen the health system and improve service delivery in the country. 

At the closing session, the WHO Country Representative a.i., Mr Evans Liyosi thanked the MOH and partners who participated in the meeting and urged the participants to ensure that the resolutions and recommendations are implemented. The Under Secretary, Dr Makur Matur Kariom who represented the Minister of Health to close the meeting underscored the government commitment, advocacy and dialogue to ensure improved funding to health sector and better service delivery to the population of South Sudan.