The Demise of the Healthcare System in Sudan: A Narrative of Corruption and Lack of Transparency
Sudan Transparency Initiative
Report Launching Press Release: “The Demise of the Healthcare System in Sudan:
A Narrative of Corruption and Lack of Transparency”
The Sudan Democracy First Group (SDFG), is pleased to announce the release of its report on the corruption and demise of the healthcare sector in Sudan. The report is the latest publication of the Sudan Transparency initiative series of researches that focus on exposing the various aspects of corruption and lack of transparency in Sudan.
Lack of transparency and corruption are rampant across Sudan. Many stories were published in different media outlets about the magnitude, scope and penetration of corruption in the public and private sectors in Sudan. However, these stories have failed to mobilize the grassroots to demand accountability; instead they ended up as sensational stories for public consumption and gossip. SDFG launched its ambitious Sudan Transparency Initiative (STI) in March 2015, an initiative dedicated to the study and documentation of corrupt practices and lack of transparency in Sudan, with the objective of raising awareness and mobilizes citizens to demand accountability.
This report emphasises the roots and the enabling factors of corruption that led to the collapse of healthcare sector in Sudan. As well, it documents the magnitude of this destruction in the health system since the militarily coup of 1989. Further, the report discusses governance challenges that face the health system in Sudan including political favouritism and health sector finance situation. Two of many dimensions of corruption in the healthcare system which the Report highlighted and analyses in depth are the government prioritization of the security sector to launch war against its own citizens in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile, as well as its active policy of privatizing and selling public assets and services to it’s cronies and supporters. Illustrative examples of the corruption in the health sector are presented in detail in the report.
In addition to documenting and corruption ininhe health sector, the Report concludes with a set of recommendations and systematic measures aimed at the addressing the root causes of corruption in the healthcare system. These include:
1.Political measures:
2.Legislative Measures
2.2 The few areas where a new or strengthened legislative framework is needed to combat corruption are in the empowerment of citizen action to hold the government accountable at local and national level. Thus, there is a need for legalizing the actions of groups such as the Sudanese Consumer Protection Association, a need to legally empower civil society groups to represent communities and the public interest in front of the law when litigating corruption incidents at the local neighborhood, local government, state and federal levels.
2.3 Review and develop new or strengthen existing legislative frameworks and laws relevant to health while prioritizing those regulating food supply, medical commodity importation and manufacturing standards, medical practice, environmental hygiene & sanitation, communicable disease control and patient rights;
3.Policy-level Measures
3.2 Develop mechanisms to effectively and transparently regulate and monitor the quality and standards of delivery in the private sector, with strong accountability parameters to the state, the professional bodies, the patient and the community; consider establishing reasonable costing parameters and guidelines which enable the private sector to profit while maintaining the affordability of access by the population. Empower such bodies by law and assist in enforcing their work to hold service providers accountable for the quality and extent of health service delivery coverage;
3.3 Dramatically increase the proportion of governmental budget spent on the health and social protection sectors, including reforming the current national health insurance to ensure it increases its coverage and it meets the social protection needs of the most vulnerable Sudanese citizens; while ensuring sufficient investments in women, youth, adolescent, child, disability support and support to victims of Sudan’s wars.
4.Institutional and Management-level Measures
5.Local and Health Service-level Measures:
Arabic translation and hard prints of this report will follow shortly. For reading the full report and recommendations, please follow the following link:
http://www.democracyfirstgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Health-Sector-Corruption-in-Sudan.pdf
info@democracyfirstgroup.org