Assuring Enhanced Healthcare Accessibility: ADE Presents Cameroon Health Sector Accountability Report

The launch on February 22, 2021 by Actions for Development and Empowerment, ADE, of the first phase of the COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project, CTAP, proved to be a turning point. It was part of the Follow The Money social responsibility initiative in Africa. The second phase of the project, which is currently underway, lasts from February 2022-February 2023. CTAP Phase 2 focuses on advocacy with national governance stakeholders to promote best practices in health sector management.

Scope Of Survey
Under the new project phase, ADE undertook a study on health sector management in Cameroon from March-June 2022. It was funded by Hilton and Skill Foundation. The 43-page Health Sector Accountability Report will be presented to stakeholders in Yaounde on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. ADE plans to focus its energy this year on advocacy for the implementation of the recommendations. The study evaluates the political economy of healthcare delivery in Cameroon, highlights the governance architecture and failures, and the interests and incentives of stakeholders. It discusses financing and accountability patterns and gaps, systemic challenges, and provides a snapshot of citizens’ perception of healthcare access and quality. 

Recommendations Of The Study
The study calls for collective action by the government, civil society and media in ensuring transparency and accountability in the health sector. It asserts that it is government’s responsibility to boost service delivery and public accountability in the health sector. As well as to increase demand site accountability by citizens on health service users. It recommends the proactive disclosure of information by health services and improvements in health spending. On the other hand, the civil society and media are expected to inform and educate the population on their crucial role in the health system as stakeholders; and on the importance of community contribution to health.
Similarly, the civil society and media need to continue to mount pressure on government institutions for the Freedom of Information Act to become reality. This will ease access to public information and make official data open for scrutiny and utilisation for engagement. The civil society is also expected to continue simplify budget and fiscal data for understanding by the public. Such information can then be disseminated through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp. As well as on radio to elicit effective public oversight by the citizens.

Town hall Discussions  
In order to advocate for improvements in Cameroon’s healthcare system, ADE’s Executive Director, Ndi Nancy Saiboh and her team organized town hall meetings and advocacy visits from July-August 2022 to six localities in five of Cameroon’s 10 administrative regions. These were Mora in the Far North, Kiiki and Soa in the Centre, Sabga in the North West, Bertoua II in the East and Bandevouri in the South Regions. The focused group discussions organized centred on two themes: The risks of self-medication and street drugs, and the role of the population in the development of the health system and its community. 

The People Explain Their Choices 
Community representatives gave reasons for preferring self-medication or traditional medicine over modern medicine. The reasons included inability to afford pharmaceutical drugs or access health care services; inadequate care from medical personnel upon arrival and stay in hospital. Which pushes them to self-medication to avoid sometimes cumbersome procedures of obtaining healthcare services. 

Proposals To Government 
From the discussions, ADE gathered recommendations to forward to the Ministry of Public Health. The proposals concern the need to work for effective universal access by vulnerable people to quality healthcare services; reduce morbidity and mortality of the population for an increase in life expectancy; reinforce the health system and partnership in the health sector.  

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