Declining health standards

Community and civic groups in Zimbabwe, led by the country’s labour movement, at the weekend criticised the government’s declining spending on health care. The Working Group on Community Health, at a rally in Harare on Sunday to mark national health day, said health funding has decreased from 3.1 percent in 1990 to 2.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1996. “Health funding has been undermined by debt, corruption and misplaced priorities in government spending,” said Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). This decline, according to UNDP figures, took place as capital expenditure continued to grow in the form of the building of over 90 new hospitals and clinics in 1992/93. This, however, placed a stress on recurrent funding of staff, stock and the running costs of these new facilities. The introduction of structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank at the beginning of 1990 also led to the removal of subsidies, which had helped to cushion the poor against the rising costs of health care. According to UNDP, infant, child and maternal mortality rates have worsened due to the combined effects of growing poverty, a decline in the quality of health care and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.