By Michael Gwarisa
A high powered 19 member Gambian delegation is in the country for a 10 day Results Based Financing (RBF) familiarization visit around the country’s health facilities.
Briefing Journalists in the Capital, Head of Gambian Delegation madam Nancy Niang said Zimbabwe’s RBF model’s success story had spread across the continent and they have come to learn.
“We are so happy to be here today because we are talking about results based financing for the health sector. The health sector is one of the main priorities for the Gambia, this is why you can see three permanent secretaries have been allowed to leave their offices for 10 days.
“Not only do we have PC’s but also officers and University professors just to show how important this is. I want to thank the World Bank (WB) for facilitating this tour. But be rest assured, we are here to learn, learning is from the cradle to the grave, if you have arrived at a point of rolling out, then of course, you must have gathered some experience, i think we are just copying and not adapting,” said Niang.
She added that Gambia is to ready learn and implement at an even faster pace than expected and will put to practice their Zimbabwean experience within the next six months in Gambia.
Results-Based Financing has become widely known among people across Zimbabwe. Despite the challenging setting, this approach has quickly contributed to better health services.
The program, which is funded by the World Bank’s multi-donor Health Results Innovation Trust Fund at the request of the government, provides subsidies to health clinics and hospitals based on their performance in delivering a package of free health services to pregnant women and children under five.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Health and Child care Hon Aldrin Musiiwa applauded the RBF model and implored the Gambian delegation to adapt the Zimbabwe system.
“Results based financing is a new approach to financing healthcare services through incentivising output, that is paying for the results. This approach is a comparison to the usual input finance to get results.
“Zimbabwe like many other progressive and developing health systems, is always looking at innovative ways to improve on health service delivery to its population and likewise, embracing of results based financing in our implementation of RBF,” said Musiiwa.
He added that the exchange would see the delegation visit some of the rural communities in which RBF financed projects are being implemented.
