Donors' Move Takes Its Toll On Red Cross
Monday, May 10, 2010
Briefing the media last week on recent developments and future plans in Gaborone, BRCS Programmes Director, Titus Makosha, said their international partners have only committed to help Botswana until this year. "They have consistently been clear on the position of graduating from Botswana because it is a middle-income country," Makosha said. He, however, expressed optimism that local resource mobilisation and development of sustainable projects should be the way to go, and any international funding should come as a bonus.
He said the decision by the international donors therefore, calls for deliberate strategies for partnerships with the private sector, locally based intergovernmental agencies as well as government agencies. The other challenge he outlined was the society's inability to retain staff and volunteers given BRCS's inability to adequately compete for the human resources in the market.
The recent Vaccination Day in Motokwe, orchestrated through collaborative efforts between UNICEF, USAID, BRCS, and the Ministry of Health, underscores a commendable stride towards fortifying child health services.The painful reality as reflected by the Ministry of Health's data regarding the decline in routine immunisation coverage since the onset of the pandemic, is a cause for concern.It underscores the urgent need to address the...