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CHALLENGING TIMES: Health Minister Reveals Donors Have Announced Plans To End Funding Malaria Projects In Uganda

The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, has told Parliament that the international donors have announced plans to end funding malaria projects in Uganda & have government raise its own funds to fight against malaria because the donors have now turned their focus on other global issues like wars in Ukraine & Gaza as well as climate change activities.

“Our partners are no longer willing to increase any more funding for malaria, they have all levelled off.  We were invited to Cameroon recently, I was there in person and we were told the world has moved on to climate change issues, global health security and to wars in Ukraine and Israel.

So we were told to sign a declaration that each of the 10 high burden countries will look for their own domestic resources and bring their malaria pandemics or epidemics to an end by themselves. So, we aren’t looking for any additional increase of resources for malaria, it has to be domestic resources," Dr Aceng said.  

Unsustainable reliance on foreign donors

The Minister decried Uganda’s over reliance on foreign donors in funding Uganda’s health sector budget, saying that in the 2024/25 national budget the Ministry of Health has been allocated Shs1.328Trn, of which 85% of this total budget is being financed by donors.

“In the 2024/25 national budget, the Ministry of Health has been allocated Shs1.328Trn. We take note that external financing takes the greater percentage. The budget under the Ministry of Health is highly subsidized by external donors at 85% and these funds are earmarked for health commodities like Global Fund and GAVI that benefit the entire health system there is need to moblise domestic resources in a phased manner in the mid-term,” said Dr Aceng.

ELIMINATING MALARIA IN UGANDA: Deputy Speaker, Thomas Tayebwa, Calls For Formulation Of Strategy To Spray Against Mosquitoes As A Way Of Dealing With Costly Malaria

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, has asked the Ministry of Health to come up with a strategy for countrywide spraying against mosquitoes to eliminate malaria. Tayebwa argued that this will save lives and reduce the high costs of treating malaria.

He called on the Minister of Health, Dr. Ruth Aceng, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to reconcile their positions on spraying because countries that have eliminated malaria have sprayed.

“We don’t need to go and invent the wheel, let us decide a country that we are going to spray, and we, Parliament, shall give you that money to spray,” the Deputy Speaker said.

“Because a person from Mitooma doesn’t know your negotiations and politics of you disagreeing with WHO, they don’t even know WHO though it is our biggest partner, what they want is eliminating malaria,” he argued.

The Deputy Speaker made the call during the Malaria Walk held in Kampala. The Malaria Walk comes at the time when WHO ranks Uganda 3rd on the list of globally burdened countries with at least 12 million malaria cases reported annually. The 2021 World Malaria Report ranked Uganda as the 5th top contributor to global malaria deaths.

“The other time, Parliament said we can’t spray, now this is a new Parliament, we are going to take charge. We are going to push it on the floor, we shall provide the money and Parliament will not interfere as long as you feel that is the right thing to do. If Rwanda has sprayed, if Kenya has sprayed, if Tanzania has sprayed and malaria has gone, you scientists, agree with each other,” added stated.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, promised to ensure the nationwide strategy of eliminating malaria is brought to Parliament. She also called for increased funding for malaria elimination using locally generated resources to cover the gap that will be left by donors who have indicated plans to reduce funding to Uganda to focus on more global challenges.

“Re-planning requires that we identify a safe chemical that can be used so that we can carry out the spraying and bring down this burden of Malaria and we stop putting ourselves as number three in the race against donating Malaria.

As a Ministry, we shall go back and re-plan and develop the strategy and present it to Parliament. That will be after presenting it to the Cabinet because it has to start from the top,” said Aceng.

NOT GOOD AT ALL: Organ Transplant Activities In Uganda Have Been Halted Because Of Lack Of Funds

The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, has revealed that all organ transplant activities in Uganda have been halted until Shs5bn is availed for the training and operations of the Human Organ Transplant Council.

The Minister announced while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee, where she explained that Shs5bn is required for the functionalization of the Human Organ Transplant Council of which, Shs3.6bn will be for training & benchmarking, whereas Shs1.4bn will be spent on operations of the Council.

“We have halted all transplant activities because we need a Council in place. Yesterday as you were touring the surgical exhibition, you saw the ready facilities, they can’t operate unless we have a Council and the Council has to be trained because it is virgin land in Uganda,” the minister said.

Donors Quit Funding Malaria

Dr. Aceng also told Parliament that the international donors have announced plans to end funding malaria projects in Uganda & have the government raise its funds to fight against malaria because the donors have now turned their focus on other global issues like wars in Ukraine & Gaza as well as climate change activities.

“Our partners are no longer willing to increase any more funding for malaria, they have all leveled off.  We were invited to Cameroon recently, I was there in person and we were told the world has moved on to climate change issues, global health security and to wars in Ukraine and Israel.

So we were told to sign a declaration that each of the 10 high burden countries will look for their own domestic resources and bring their malaria pandemics or epidemics to an end by themselves. So, we aren’t looking for any additional increase of resources for malaria, it has to be domestic resources," Dr Aceng said.