MANILA, Philippines - The European Union is
giving a €30 million (P1.8 billion) worth of donation to the Philippines for
the country’s health sector improvements. The
European Union and the Philippines signed a financing agreement last July 30.
In the agreement, the EU will
provide a €30-million funding to provide the government initiatives in
developing the country’s health sector. The agreement was signed by Director
Dirk Meganck of Europe Aid Cooperation
who represents the EU, and Finance
Secretary Cesar Purisima for the Philippine government.
Of the €30 million worth of grant, €20.5
million will be straightly directed to the National Treasury while the €9.5
million is targeted to finance many technical assistance and capacity
building programs to support the Department of Health (DOH)’s health delivery
systems.
The formal acceptance of the agreement
increases the support of the EU to the
health sector to a total €118 million or around P7.2 billion from 2006 to 2018. For over the years, DOH
programs have accomplished outstanding progress through the constant support
they are receiving from the EU.
Based on DOH record, noteworthy is the
decline in child humanity from 58 in 1998 to 30 deaths per 1,000 live births in
2011; the increase in the population’s protection coverage from 62 percent in
2010 to 83 percent in 2012, of which 53 percent come most weak and the poor
families in the country.
Because of the effort of the DOH, twenty-seven
provinces have been confirmed malaria free, and the percentage of people
infected with contagious HIV and AIDS has remained below 1 percent of the country’s
population.
EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux said that out of the
€30-million grant, the EU is approving the release of €10 million to support
the “Build Back Better” plan of the DOH after Typhoon Yolanda.
According
to Health Secretary Enrique Ona, DOH persistently aims to strengthen the
country’s health systems by rationalizing and improving the value of health
services and ensuring better access to these services by Filipinos, particularly
the poor and the disadvantaged Filipino citizen.
