Back to Index

Resolutions from the CWGH 10th National Meeting
Community Working Group on Health (CWGH)
Extracted from the CWGH Annual Report 2004
April 12, 2005

Read The Herald article referring to these resolutions

Resolutions
At the end of the meeting the following resolutions were compiled

"We the representatives of the 25 CWGH districts attending the 10^th national CWGH meeting having reviewed our work in line with the CWGH goals resolve that:

1. The CWGH will define and monitor the costs of ‘health basket’ of essential inputs to support health (similar to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe bread basket) that will indicate to the nation the cost of maintain health to the people.
2. The CWGH will lobby for subsidies on agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizer to encourage production rather than food handouts to strengthen food security.
3. The CWGH will advocate and lobby governments and national producers in Zimbabwe and in the region to invest in the production of essential generic drugs including antiretroviral, so that the region becomes self reliant in the production of medicines.
4. The CWGH to lobby parliament and government for increased funding to be allocated to health in the national budget, and for increased funding from the health budget to be allocated to districts and particularly clinics to provide basic services. We will lobby for these budget allocations as a more equitable way of financing these services than any increase in user fees and charges.
5. The CWGH to lobby for transparency, accountability and relevant use of public funds like the AIDS Levy Fund.

In follow up to this we recommend that the CWGH carry out the following:

1. Work with the Civic Monitoring Programme to define a health basket, including shelters, food and safe water, clothing, proper sanitation, safety and security and health care, survey of the level and costs of these inputs at community level in our districts to establish a "health basket’, report on this and take up issues around these costs as CWGH in discussion with MPs, Councillors, health authorities and officials at district and national levels.
2. Support women in our communities to discuss their rights to production, to property, to form buying clubs to purchase wholesale seed and inputs for farming, disseminate information on where to access loans for seed loan schemes and lobby for equitable land allocation, including to women.
3. Encourage urban agriculture and lobby municipalities to avail land to communities for this, join consumer resistance lobbies on over priced commodities and promote healthy food substitutes like sweet potatoes (mbambaira) and mealth MPs, Councillors, Health authoritiesf the level and costs rice (Manhuchu) and promote urban bulk buying clubs and employment and production activities. The CWGH nationally will approach relevant NGOs and authorities to implement humanitarian and livelihood support to vulnerable groups in urban areas.
4. Strengthen our links with parliament at district level by involving MPs in CWGH planning meetings and activities, together with headman, chiefs, and councilors and by ensuring that communities know their rights, roles and responsibilities in relation to their representatives and make full use of the parliament information centres. At national level, the CWGH will take health issue from the grassroots and get feedback from parliamentarians, including on Aids Levy Fund, Health Services Fund, and National Budget and on access to antiretrovirals.
5. Call upon parliament and the NAC to carry out a review of the mechanisms for funding disbursement of the Aids Levy Fund; call for representative ness, transparency and accountability and call for audit of the disbursed AIDS Levy Fund to be done to DAAC level and the audited results to be widely publicised.

Visit the CWGH fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP