Lawmaker demands 15 percent budget allocate for health sector

JUBA – A South Sudanese lawmaker has called for a significant increase in healthcare funding, urging the government to allocate 15% of the annual budget to the health sector in line with the Abuja Declaration.

Peter Adwok Otto, a member of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly’s health committee, emphasized the need for greater investment to address the country’s high maternal mortality rate.

Speaking at the launch of a malaria vaccine in Juba on Tuesday, Otto said, “Our ministry is a ministry that is taking care of the health and healthiness of the people and therefore it should be supported.”

He stressed the importance of adhering to the Abuja Declaration, a 2001 commitment by African Union countries to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets to health.

“Last year we were aiming at Abuja of 2001 where each and every ministry should get 15% in Africa, but we are far below this,” Otto said.

A fellow lawmaker echoed these concerns, describing the current healthcare budget as grossly inadequate.

The lawmaker said the paltry 2% allocation from the previous year was insufficient to hire doctors or meet other organizational demands.

Health Minister Yolanda Awel Deng acknowledged the ministry’s challenges, citing a shortage of funds as a barrier to deploying doctors across the country.

“We are employing the doctors, but I have got a condition of the living condition of those doctors in the subnational,” she said.