Government should allocate at least 15% of the 2007 budget to the health sector as recommended by the Abuja Declaration of 2000, of which Zimbabwe is a signatory. In a presentation before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Welfare yesterday, the Health Ministry said its budgetary allocation for next year should conform to the declaration. “The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare budget should at least meet the Abuja Declaration target of a minimum of 15 percent of the government budget going to Ministry of Health. Our government is a signatory to the declaration, which was reiterated in Maseru and Maputo in 2003 and 2004 respectively,” the Ministry said. Zimbabwe has been facing a myriad of challenges in the health delivery sector due to under-funding, which resulted in the shortage of essential drugs, equipment and loss of skilled manpower due to poor remuneration. The ministry said its priorities in the coming year include human resource development and management with emphasis on retention by improving conditions of service. It said it also intended to improve drug supplies, equipment and transport availability, especially ambulances, rehabilitation of existing infrastructure and revitalisation of primary health care. Giving evidence on the performance of his ministry so far this year, permanent secretary Edward Mabhiza said they had managed to reduce the HIV and Aids prevalence rate from 21,1% in 2005 to 18,1 percent although he said the figure was still too high. 'Patients on ARV treatment increased from 25 000 to 36 000 although it is expected that they be 120 000 by the end of the year,' he said. Other achievements Mabhiza enunciated include increasing facilities offering Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) from 49 to 67. He added that central and six provincial hospitals were now offering post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to victims of sexual abuse to minimise HIV transmission. National Aids Council (NAC) director Tapuwa Magure said according to the country’s Millennium Development Goals ((MDGs) report of 2004, US$38 million is needed to reverse the spread of the HIV and Aids pandemic by 2015. 'According to the MDGs report for 2004 the country requires an estimated US$38 million to reverse the spread of HIV and Aids between 2002 and 2015. This exclude the cost of ARVs but the value we have been receiving in real terms has continued to dwindle,' he said. Magure added that they had been using US$250 000 a month to purchase ARVs. Joyce Kadandara - a member of the Health Service Board - mourned the massive brain drain in the sector saying at some institutions they had vacancy rates of between 50 and 100%. 'We are trying to put a foundation and articulate the needs of the health sector. "We need to realise we are on a shaky ground. In some institutions we visited, 50 to 100% of some posts were vacant,' she said. Kadandara added that her board had completed a new grading system for health personnel that had been a major cause of concern for the employees. Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee, Blessing Chebundo said it was critical that all ministries whose work also overlapped with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare be involved when discussing the financing of the health sector. 'There is need for us to find a way of involving other ministries that have a component of health in them like the ministries of water and agriculture. That is how best we can do to engage them on issues to do with provision of clean water and food security that are also of concern to this ministry (health),' he said.