Accident funds to emphasise prevention

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Tuesday October 19, 2010 00:00

'The prevailing operative phrase is 'prevention for sustainability,'' Muadino said. Muadino was speaking in Gaborone last week at the occasion to mark the signing of a Memorandum between MVA (Botswana) and the Ministry of Health that culminated in a case management workshop for MVA (Namibia) and MVA (Botswana).

The Namibian said progressive accident funds must expend their resources largely on injury prevention and safety promotion. 'Even in the health sector, they talk of promotion of good and healthy lifestyles and prevention being better than cure,' he said.

'This phraseology, among others, places more emphasis on sustainable development. All forms of intervention made in any process must bring about the desired effect without negatively affecting the cost side.'

Muadino spoke about three basic principles of running a motor vehicle accident scheme, namely; sustainability, affordability and accessibility. For the effective attainment of these, he said, MVA Funds must build and maintain strategic alliances with allied organisations. 

'It is against this background that I applaud the MVA Fund Botswana and the Ministry of Health for having taken this initiative,' he said.

'I am reliably informed that through the Ministry of Health, the government has been able to assist the MVA Fund Botswana in advancing its mandate. It is therefore high time that you improved and formalised your relationship within a framework that ensures mutual benefit between the parties.'

Muadino said MVA Fund Namibia had a long-standing relationship with MVA Fund Botswana, which had now advanced to a formal bilateral agreement between the two that was signed in 2008. Since then, the relationship between the two organisations became even more fruitful.

Mudiano said through the agreement, they had developed and expanded the framework of cooperation between the two organisations towards mutually beneficial programmes to curb road accidents.

'We are here to consult on how best we can effectively run our respective rehabilitation programmes,' he said. 'Case management is at the centre of our rehabilitation processes.'

The workshop was themed 'Strengthening Case Management: the Future of Rehabilitation.' Mudiano defined the theme as 'incisive' in that it actually pinpointed a key area of focus in their respective operations.

He said the basis of their customer satisfaction was an effective case management process.

The Chief Executive Officer of MVA Fund Botswana, Cross Kgosidiile, revealed in an interview that the two countries' systems were almost the same level, hence the decision to hold the workshop together.

Kgosidiile said Batswana had held similar seminars to share experiences with the Namibians in the past, adding the two funds were in the process of developing case management strategies.