Government launches US90 million Health Resilience Fund

Minister of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), Dr Constantino Chiwengan has launched the  Health Resilience Fund (HRF) mechanism which seeks to accelerate progress towards achieving UHC.

Three UN Agencies (UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO) together with the MoHCC will take leadership in the implementation of the HRF.

The donors who have pooled the funding into the HRF include the European Union, the Government of Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Speaking during the launch of HRF and strategies, Dr Chiwenga emphasized on the importance of collaboration in the achievement of Universal Health Coverage.

“As the name suggest the HRF is designed to ensure resilient and sustainable health system. The challenges and lessons learnt were critically analyzed to come up with health interventions which consider scarcity of resources and the need for improved efficiency in our programming,” he said.

The HRF will contribute improving health care for vulnerable mothers, new-born, children, and adolescents in Zimbabwe under the coordination of the MoHCC with support from WHO, UNFPA, and UNICEF.

The Fund with a budget of approximately USD 90 million will focus on three health pillars: ending preventable maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent deaths; global health security; and health systems strengthening.

WHO will provide technical and operational support to MoHCC in strengthening public health emergency surveillance and response at all levels of the health system including community level under the HRF.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Zimbabwe Mr Edward Kallon said that the partnership was crucial in the attainment of SDGs.

“The HRF and the result of partnerships among partners, will also impact positively on other sectors, Education, WASH, gender equality and equity, job creation, thus enabling the achievement of other SDGs, including strengthening the resilience of the people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

 The HRF and new strategies are timely interventions that will significantly contribute towards building sustainable and resilient health systems which can adequately respond to public health emergencies and ensure health security.