‘African countries’ budget made not based on evidence’

Most countries in Africa make their budgets without necessarily looking at the evidence on the ground which would have helped translate funds into meaningful investments.

Various parliamentarians, civil societies and the media attending a workshop on Accountability Loop Budget Advocacy (ALBA) in Harare, Zimbabwe, were told that this unfortunately is responsible for the slow pace of development in various sectors, especially in health.

WHO country representative to Zimbabwe, Dr David Okello, said there was a large disconnect in the ways advocacy for increased funding are done which does not produce the necessary result.

According to him, advocacy should be made to show how funds are used to improve health, indicating how many women, children and men have benefited from an intervention and why more money should be allocated to such intervention.

He explained that with the scarcity of funds nationwide and a lot of sectors competing for resources, most sectors must collaborate and share responsibility to improve development.

A representative from UNICEF, Khassoum Diallo, noted that though some improvements have been made in maternal and child health, most African countries are still lagging behind in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).