By David Ngira
Somalias healthcare sector is ailing. This is despite the country receiving USD 4.5 Billion debt relief from IMF and the World Bank last year which moved the countrys debt to GDP ratio from 64% to 6%. The relief followed protracted negotiations under the Highly indebted Poor Countries Initiative. The countrys investment in health has reduced, even though debt relief was premised on economic reforms including implementation of a poverty reduction strategy, increasing revenue collection, prioritization of spending on projects and enhancement of public finance and debt management capacity. Analysis indicates that Somalias health budget reduced significantly from 8.5% of the budget in 2023 to 4.8% in 2024 despite the reductio…
Read the full article at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2024/07/reduction-of-somalia-health-budget-a-betrayal/