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Make Poverty History Campaign Brings Results

Zambia uses debt cancellation to make health care free for rural poor

The government of Zambia today introduced free health care for people living in rural areas, scrapping fees which for years had made health care inaccessible for millions. Zambia is the third African country to do so, after Uganda and South Africa. The move was made possible thanks to debt cancellation and aid increases agreed at the G8! last July. Zambia is now investing an additional $4 billion in health and education.

"People often bemoan the lack of good news coming out of Africa,” said Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Can! ada. “Here is an example of what can happen when people in the rich world and the developing world push their leaders to deliver. Supporters of the Make Poverty History campaign should be proud of this achievement."

Sixty-five per cent of Zambia's citizens live on less than a dollar a day. Until today the average trip to a clinic would have cost more than double that amount, the equivalent of a Canadian earning minimum wage having to pay over $100 just to visit a clinic.

User fees were introduced in Zambia under IMF and World Bank pressure in the early 1990s. Young girls in rural areas were the main victims of the policy as their families were rarely willing or able to pay for their treatment.

When Uganda removed fees most clinics saw a doubling in their patient numbers, and Zambia can now expect a similar surge. Sadly, this will exacerbate the chronic shortage of health workers: currently only one doctor per 14,000 people (compared to one doctor per 560 people in Canada) and the numbers of nurses in the country needs to be d! oubled. Wages in the public sector are abysmal and working conditions appalling.

"We commend the government for removing user fees in rural areas and urge them to do the same in urban areas. More money is now urgently needed for medicines and to improve the working conditions of doctors and nurses," said Henry Malumo, National Coordinator for the Global Call to Action against Poverty in Zambia.

“Zambia is one of CIDA’s countries of focus,” Fox said. “Canada should now help the country train and retain health care professionals. And Canada must press the IMF to end loan conditions that restrict the employment of extra health care workers.”