Government affirms its desire to clean up financing mess in the health sector, while reassuring international partners of Cameroon’s commitment to respecting good governance standards in the management of its subsidies.
Wednesday 7th of May 2025 witnessed a strategic assessment meeting that was held in the office of the Minister of Public Health headed by Manaouda Malachie himself. The main focus of this important sitting was on the implementation of the Global Fund’s recommendations regarding the management of public health grants. According to a briefing note from the Public Health boss, Dr. Manaouda Malachie provided an uncompromising overview, while calling for stricter reform of the supply chain and control mechanisms.
The main objective of this meeting was to assess the gap between what has been undertaken under the Global Fund’s Risk Mitigation Plan and what remains to be accomplished, particularly in terms of reimbursement and co-financing. This plan, in effect since April 2025, includes 25 short-, medium-, and long-term actions, targeting, among other things, the fight against fraud, the optimization of human resources, the destruction of expired health products, and the implementation of digital tools for the effective traceability of medical supplies.
“We must now be stricter, more rigorous, even uncompromising on issues of governance and transparency,” the minister said, placing particular emphasis on the control of inputs. He also noted that the imposed rigor has led international partners, notably Ottawa, to send a general inspection mission to the field. Furthermore, Dr. Manaouda congratulated the teams at the head office of the Drugstore and the Laboratories for their recent operations to destroy adulterated medicines, an action hailed as a strong measure to promote public health safety. All critical points raised during the day’s strategic brainstorming session were carefully examined. It was agreed that a consolidated report of this meeting would be forwarded without delay to the President of the Republic and to the head of the Global Fund, in a spirit of accountability and enhanced cooperation.
