Project Launch: 3 February 2013, Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda.

Some of the participants at the official launch of the regional project

Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) was among the key implementing partners present at the launch of the  GAVI Alliance-funded regional project on 3rd February 2013 in Munyonyo, Kampala, Uganda.

The mission of GAVI Alliance is to save children’s lives and protect people’s health by increasing access to immunisation in poor countries. Its four strategic goals are to accelerate the uptake and use of underused and new vaccines; to contribute to strengthening the capacity of integrated health systems to deliver immunisation; to increase the predictability of global financing and improve the sustainability of national financing for immunisation and to shape vaccine markets.

The project, in which MHEN is coordinating institution in Malawi, seeks to create a national civil society network and/or strengthen an existing network’s capacity to engage in immunization - and health system- strengthening processes; influence and engage with country governments and development partners; link communities with immunization and health systems; and act as key partners in implementing the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) at the country and community level.

MHEN Director (far right) during the project launch in Uganda.

During the launch, MEHN presented a draft Advocacy Strategy whose goal is to ensure that Civil Society Organizations are effectively engaging government and development partners on immunization policy formulation, practice and review. Among other things, the strategy would guide MHEN, its affiliates, and partners in organising a series of meetings using talking points, power point presentations, briefs and trusted peers (the Ministry of Health PRO) to present the message to key individuals in the Ministry of Health.

The strategy also proposes that the CSO Platform leaders would have a preview meeting with Ministry of Health’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) who is a trusted peer of the Ministry of Health’s Principal Secretaries and Directors. The CSO Platform leaders are, however, expected to have preview sessions with experienced CSO leaders for objective critique of the messages.


The project directly responds to GAVI Alliance Strategic Goal 2, which is to contribute to strengthening the capacity of integrated health systems to deliver immunisation. It further contributes to the resolving of the major constraints to delivering immunisation, and to the increase of equity in access to services.

MHEN Welcoms Appointment of Health Commissioners

Ng'oma

Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) Executive Director Martha Kwataine welcomed the appointment  of new commissioners for the Health Service Commission which will have the difficult task of looking into the five year back log of promotions, recruitments and disciplinary issues in the public health service.

President Joyce Banda made the appointment on November 28, 2012 with Lillian Ng'oma, formerly Commissioner for Disaster Management and Preparedness as chair of the Health Commission.

Kwataine, however, warned the new commission to take politics out of promotions and recruitments.

"The grading system is in shambles and I hope they will sort it out. There are nurses who are on higher grade compared to district health officers and this has created discontentment in the health service, which has impact on human resources for health," Kwataine told a local daily, The Daily Times.

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MHEN Asks Health Minister to Resign

Kwataine

On 22 September 2012, the Malawi Health Equity Network (MHEN) asked  Vice President, Khumbo Kachali, to relinquish his ministerial post as Minister of Health following the infamous Mponela bed-gate scandal in the run-up to the Mzimba by-elections in October.

MHEN, a 50-member organisation of health rights bodies in the country, asked Kachali called for the Kachali's resignation for watching over a bungled transfer of 13 hospital beds from Mponela Rural Hospital in Dowa to Mzimba.

The Ministry of Health removed the beds from a ward at the hospital, allegedly bundling some patients off the beds in the middle of the night and took the beds to Mzimba, Kachali's home district.

Coincidentally, the beds were destined for a health centre in a constituency where Kachali is leading a People's Party campaign in an October 9 by-election aimed to replace him as a member of parliament.

MHEN Executively Director, Martha Kwataine, however, was quoted by a local daily that the ministry has technocrats who are competent enough to know how they are supposed to do their job without upsetting anyone.

"With due respect, the Vice President must resign as Minister of Health so that we get another person who concentrates on the portfolio. He is combining two huge positions each with own excessive demands and likely to conflict in terms of performance.

"We have worked with Honourable Kachali before when he was Minister of Health and we had no problem with him that time. This time, we are inclined to believe that, holding two positions, he has too much on his plate and he must relinquish the health ministry job," Kwataine told The Dailly Times.

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