Speaker of Parliament Catherine Gotani Hara has challenged fellow parliamentarians to allocate more resources towards the health sector to scale up access to health services, particularly for women and children.

She said this when opening a day-long International Parliamentary Union (IPU) capacity building meeting for parliamentarians on financing on women and adolescents health in Lilongwe.

Hara: A lot of women are dying

Hara said even in the wake of resource constraints, Parliament can play its oversight role of providing checks and balances and ensuring accountability for all allocated resources.

She said: “A lot of women are dying during childbirth and we are still registering a lot of neonatal deaths. As Parliamentarians, we need to push more, to make sure our women and children receive optimum care.”

During the meeting, legislators faulted the Treasury for delaying payment to various government ministries, departments and agencies even after Parliament had approved the funds.

In his remarks, Health and Rights Education Programme Malawi executive director Maziko Matemba said even though Malawi is doing well in health budget allocation, by allocating 12 percent of the required 14 percent of the national budget this financial year, there is still need to do more especially on access to sexual reproductive health and rights.

He said: “SRHR is a high burden of disease but it is still not getting enough funding allocation. This is leading to an increase in teenage pregnancies and we hope the members of Parliament will help to ensure that government and other partners come forth with enough resources,”

Among others, the Department of Reproductive Health in the Ministry of Health highlighted gaps in the maternal, child and neo-natal health issues, including family planning calling on legislators to use their powers to advocate for more resources.

The IPU is a global organisation of national Parliaments. It facilitates parliamentary diplomacy and empowers Parliaments and parliamentarians to promote peace, democracy and sustainable development around the world. n

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