The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has donated drugs and medical equipment worth US$15 million to Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation to reduce morbidity and maternal mortality rate and improve on health care delivery.
The UNFPA Country Representative in Sierra Leone, Barnabas Yisa handed over the drugs and equipment to the Health and Sanitation Minister, Dr. Saccoh Kabia at a ceremony in Freetown. Mr Yisa said the package was a direct response to UNFPA’s realization that there was need to ensure a sustained availability of reproductive health commodities if Sierra Leone was to reverse the high maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality rates. He said the Ministry’s continued participation in deciding what should be procured in terms of quality and quantity would always be needed stressing that UNFPA did not have adequate resources to procure non-essential commodities. “It is with this in mind that the UNFPA endeavors to have an end-user generated procurement system,” Mr Yisa said, adding that this would ensure that only commodities that service providers requested would be purchased and delivered. “With this alone I am convinced we shall make substantial savings by avoiding the purchase and delivery of redundant goods at high cost,” he said.
