South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The national minister of health Yolanda Awel Deng Juach has pledged to work with all development partners to provide efficient and effective health services to people of South Sudan.
“The ministry of health is committed to working with Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) as well as other partners and donors in the country to address these challenges and improve the health of the people in South Sudan, regardless of where they come from,” Juach said on Wednesday.
She was speaking during celebration of 40 years of MSF service in South Sudan in Juba. MSF is an international charity which provides health services to vulnerable population across the world.
“For us to be effective as people working in the healthcare sector, we must coordinate, we must align and we must be on the same page through frequent communication,” Juach said.
She underscored the importance of realigning the priorities of MSF with that of the health sector strategic plan.
“That way we are not wasting the resources, we are not wasting our time and we’ll be hitting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For me, as the one leading the health sector, I summaries it into two or three areas such as localization, resilience and sustainability,” Juach said.
She added the importance of realigning priorities helps improve efficient and effective service delivery to avoid overlaps.
“For us to keep up, to try and pull everybody on board was a little bit hard. But I’m very glad and happy to say that almost all our donors, partners in South Sudan are realigning behind the ministry of health and I promise you that myself and my team will be committed fully to trying and making sure that our partnership is strengthened,” Juach said.
Juach noted that such partnerships enhance transparency and accountability to one another.
She disclosed the ministry plans to engage international donors to increase funding towards the health sector in order to retain staff.
“At the moment, we have got poor work retention package, both ways for those who are in the NGO world it is a short term contract that has got job security. For us in the government sector, we are putting in more resources whereby people see the pastures on this side (NGOs) are greener,” Juach said.
The deputy minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Ramadan Mohammed Abdallah Goch said MSF and all humanitarian organizations have done great work over the years to support vulnerable South Sudanese.
“Let me salute all humanitarian organizations not only MSF, all humanitarian organizations and all humanitarian workers in the Republic of South Sudan because they are here helping our people voluntarily. They left their homes and their families and are here to share with us the pain,” Goc said.
He said these humanitarian organizations have been operating in South Sudan for 40 years prior to independence in 2011.
“They have been actually rendering services to our people, not only health services but also they were actually giving more than that to our people during the time of need and South Sudan is totally different than other countries,” Goc said.
He said that South Sudan is currently facing dire humanitarian crisis compounded by the recent influx of returnees and refugees from neighboring Sudan, adding this current situation calls for more partnership with humanitarian agencies.
Mohamamd Ibrahim , MSF head of mission in South Sudan said MSF has remained committed to its mission of delivering impartial and independent medical care to those in need, regardless of their background or circumstances.
“Thanks to a long-standing collaboration with South Sudanese health authorities, as well as the continued engagement of local communities, MSF’s presence in South Sudan, a country marked by the conflict and complex healthcare challenges has been a beacon of hope for countless individuals and communities,” he said
Ibrahim noted that humanitarian assistance in South Sudan remains as critical as ever.
He said that strategic cross- sector coordination and tangible investment are needed across sectors.
Ibrahim said that providing long term sustained and stable investment by donors is crucial in improving health services.
MSF is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides care to populations in distress and victims of natural or man-made disasters and armed conflicts, regardless of race, region or political beliefs.
In South Sudan, MSF provides basic and specialized healthcare, respond to emergencies and outbreaks affecting isolated communities, and internally displaced people. It currently offers medical services through 13 projects in seven of the 10 states and two administrative areas.
