MBANDAKA, DECEMBER 15, 2019 – In Equateur province, Democratic Republic of Congo, Parliamentarians have taken bold steps to guarantee the health of the people who elected them. On 5 December 2019, 14 members of Parliament unanimously voted the first ever law on sustainable health financing in Equateur province. This is also the first law passed in the current legislature that started in March 2019. The new law would emphasize domestic resource mobilization to address various health challenges that the province is facing including ensuring vaccines and products are available to address childhood disease and recurrent cholera, measles, Ebola and pneumonia outbreaks.
For Honorable Buka Claude , the President of Equateur Provincial Parliament, “The new law is expected to help meet commitments made during the National Forum on Immunization and Polio eradication on 23 July 2019 under the leadership of Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the President of Democratic Republic of Congo. … My colleague Parliamentarians and I are very concerned about child mortality and recurrent outbreaks. This is what motivated us to pass the Edict to enable the Provincial Government to mobilize and allocate more resources in the health sector to ensure that the people who elected us are healthy and can actively contribute in the economy of the province.”
Equateur province is a geographically-challenging province in northwestern DRC. The province is crossed by a number of forests and rivers, including the majestic Congo River, making it difficult to access basic health services. VillageReach has worked closely with political leaders in Equateur province to ensure that health products are available to people when and where they are needed through supply chain optimization and the use of drones.
VillageReach also raised awareness of the need to mobilize domestic resources with members of Equateur’s Provincial Parliament. Honorable Mobeki Jean Fulgence defended the Edict saying, “This Edict is the result of the consultation and contribution with my colleague Parliamentarians to provide for the present and future generation with a tool that enables them to mobilize resources needed to address multiple health issues facing our province.”
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About VillageReach
VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone, so that each person has the health care needed to thrive. We develop solutions that improve equity and access to primary health care. This includes making sure products are available when and where they are needed and primary health care services are delivered to the most under-reached. Radical collaboration with governments, the private sector and other partners strengthen our ability to scale and sustain these solutions. Our work increases access to quality health care for 46 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.
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