Statement By UN Resident Coordinator at the opening session of the 2022 National Health Summit.

• His Excellency, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Rtd Brig-Gen. Julius Maada Bio
• The Honourable Vice President, Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh,
• Her Excellency, First Lady of Republic of Sierra Leone, Mrs Fatima Maada Bio
• Honourable Minister of Health and Sanitation
• Honourable Ministers of Government
• Honourable Members of Parliament
• The Diplomatic Corp and Health Development Partners
• Honourable Deputy Minister of Health
• Chairperson, Permanent Secretary, MoHS, Mr. Morie Momoh
• Other Senior Officials of Ministry of Health and Sanitation & its Agencies
• Representatives of Civil Society, the Private Sector, and the Press
• Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to make some remarks on behalf of the United Nations System in Sierra Leone at this first-of-its-kind National Health Summit.  

Your Excellency, permit me to start by thanking the Honorable Minister of Health and Sanitation for his leadership, and Health Ministry personnel for their hard work in organizing this summit which has brought us together to take stock and share our perspectives in moving forward the health agenda in Sierra Leone.

You would all agree that the last two years have been very challenging for the whole world, including Sierra Leone. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted socio-economic development, including in the health sector, where there has been a disruption of health services. It is gratifying that Sierra Leone responded early and decisively to control the pandemic. May l, therefore, take this opportunity to thank His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio, for his leadership in spearheading the prevention and control of the pandemic.

The theme for this historic National Health Summit - "Transforming Health Service Delivery Towards Universal Health Coverage”, is appropriate and a clarion call to all of us to do whatever is necessary and sustainable to achieve the various targets leading to Universal Health Coverage by 2030 in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The theme calls for radical, innovative, and positive ways of doing things in the sector. Accordingly, we in the United Nations system in Sierra Leone commit to sustaining and strengthening our support to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to transform health service delivery.

There can be no better occasion than this Summit to reiterate three inter-related points about the criticality of health transformation to the achievement of sustainable development.

One - financial outlay on health is not a consumption cost. Rather, it is an investment in building human capital and a smart one at that since it is guaranteed to yield huge returns in terms of increased productivity and incomes over the life course, stimulate economic growth, and foster family stability and social harmony. Two - relatively good population-level health indicators can be achieved by countries at low levels of per capita income, as illustrated by the experience of Rwanda, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Sri Lanka. So, health transformation is as much a challenge of national fiscal capacity as it is a challenge of prioritization, policy choices, and resource management. This is because the main drivers of heavy disease burden and high frequency of premature deaths in low and middle-income countries such as diarrhoea, acute childhood malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis, pregnancy-related complications and even the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases do have proven low-cost solutions that have been around for a long time.  Three - we know that good health outcomes also depend on real progress in other sectors such as education, agriculture, women’s empowerment, and transport and energy infrastructure. In short, an unmistakable proof of progress by a country towards sustainable development is better and improving health indicators.

The United Nations would like to congratulate Sierra Leone, especially the health sector, for its excellent achievements in health outcomes over recent years. Particularly noteworthy is the reduction of the Maternal Mortality Ratio by 38 percent from 1,165 in 2013 to 717 per 100,000 live births in 2019 and the Under-Five Mortality Rate from 156 deaths per 1,000 live births to 122 deaths per 1,000 live births. These improvements represent impressive contributions made by the health sector to the implementation of the Medium-Term National Development Plan of 2019-2023. Whilst appreciating these achievements, we call on all stakeholders to urgently redouble efforts to achieve the various targets of the Sustainable Development Goals that Sierra Leone has signed on to including to achieve a Maternal Mortality Ratio of 70 per 100,000 live births 8 years from now.

The great strides made by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in the last two years in developing strategic documents which will serve as reform drivers for the sector also need to be recognized. These include the Universal Health Coverage Roadmap 2020, National Health and Sanitation Policy, National Health Sector Strategic Plan, National Health Financing Strategy, National Health Information Systems Strategy, National Research for Health Policy, Medical Research and Assistive Technology Policy, the National Medicines Policy, Essential Medicines List of 2021, and the Primary Health Care Handbook of 2020. Whilst we congratulate the Ministry for these achievements, we wish to call on the government and other stakeholders to provide the necessary environment and resources for their implementation. The United Nations system participated effectively in the processes leading to the development of these strategic documents and we are keen to be part of the implementation processes. 

Human resources for health and health financing are some of the challenges confronting not only the health sector but the whole nation.  We are happy to note the commitment backed with action resulting in the increase in the size of the health workforce in the public sector in recent times. We commend the Honorable Minister of Health for his commitment to increase the admission of medical students to 300 per year as against the current figure of about 100.

We are also very much aware of the government’s plan to establish the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance Schemes (SLeSHI). This is a very laudable effort. The National Health Accounts since 2017 have indicated that households and their families contribute over half of the current health expenditure of Sierra Leone. This high out-of-pocket expenditure on health is disturbing since it pushes about 11 precent of Sierra Leoneans into poverty. We are hopeful that the implementation of SLeSHI will eventually reduce the current high percentage of out-of-pocket expenditure and lessen the financial burden on the population thereby enabling the country to have a more healthy and productive population.

Your Excellency, there is a saying that “Hard Work is the Path to Success” and those who work hard must be recognized. The last few years have seen many staff members of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in various capacities “Putting in Blood, Sweat and Tears” for the success of the sector. It is appropriate for those who are pushing for health sector progress to be recognized. In view of this, the UN in Sierra Leone would like to extend our congratulations to the Honorable Minister of Health and Sanitation for instituting the Recognition Awards as part of the National Health Summit. It is our hope that this initiative will serve as a strong motivation for every single worker in the health sector to be recognized one day for their hard work and excellence.

I would like to call on the Ministry to start strategizing on how to institutionalize the National Health Summit to provide the platform for inclusive sectoral planning and review. It is our hope that the discussions during the next two days will be held in the spirit of candour and openness so as to generate ideas that will transform the health sector and improve health outcomes.

Your Excellency, before you in this hall is a good representation of the full range and diversity of stakeholders in the health sector. We can have no better opportunity than this to work together with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in the driver’s seat to achieve clarity, consensus, and unity of purpose in coming up with a workable formula for improving health service delivery and transforming the health sector to be fit for the purpose towards universal health coverage in Sierra Leone by 2030. Let this inaugural National Health Summit mark the beginning of a significant upturn in the health profile of Sierra Leone so as to accelerate economic growth and social progress that leaves no one behind.

I thank you for your kind attention.