Southern African Development Community (SADC) Health and Finance Ministers recently convened in Harare, Zimbabwe, to address the rapidly growing health financing gap amid declining donor support and increasing pressure on national health systems.

The high-level meeting focused on developing sustainable financing mechanisms to reduce reliance on external aid, strengthen domestic resource mobilisation, and safeguard essential health services across the region.

Ministers also called for the urgent mobilisation of regional resources to strengthen preparedness against disease outbreaks including the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda which has claimed more than 452 lives with a cumulative of 1480 confirmed cases in the two affected countries.

The Ministers warned that delaying investment in prevention and response systems will ultimately result in far greater human and financial costs.

–SABC–