IMF censured for stifling fight against Aids

A new report released on Tuesday censures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for stifling Kenya’s fight against HIV/Aids and tuberculosis.

The study, conducted by the Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in Africa in collaboration with Kenya Aids NGOs Consortium (KANCO) and Results Education Fund, reveals that the Fund’s policies restrict government spending denying sick Kenyans access to drugs and quality healthcare.

The report, Evidence of the Impact of IMF Fiscal and Monetary Policies on the Capacity to Address HIV/Aids and TB Crises in Kenya, observes that IMF’s demands for a low ceiling in government budgetary allocations to health has left Kenya’s fight against HIV/Aids virtually dependent on donor funding.

Launched in Nairobi on Tuesday, the report further notes that IMF’s demands has forced the government to lower its wage bill, resulting in a near freeze in employment and leaving the Health ministry to struggle without enough care givers.

The revelation comes at a time when health experts are demanding the employment of 24,000 additional nurses to stem a biting shortage of staff in public health facilities.

In 2006 an estimated1million health staff was needed in Africa if the continent is to meet the Millennium Development Goals and fight against HIV/Aids.

Former Mandera Central MP, Billow Kerrow, who launched the report, Kenya needs to decide whether to blindly follow IMF prescriptions and endanger her people’s health, or reject them and pursue policies that enhance access to health.

“Policies such as cost sharing in health facilities are not applicable in a country like ours, in which people die from simple controllable diseases such as cholera,” he said.

Arguing for a more open budget-making process, Mr Kerrow said the secret IMF missions with Treasury were not enough to take on board concerns of those in various sectors.

“Our people will continue dying unless we get our priorities right. Why does IMF put a budgetary ceiling on health and education and not on military?” he posed, adding that health staffing was not about job creation but poverty reduction and fighting diseases.

Kenya’s 3rd Annual Progress Report on Economic Recovery Strategy published in 2007 notes that spending on health stood at only six per cent against Abuja Declaration’s 15 per cent.

It also established that 23 per cent of Kenya’s sick are unable to access healthcare due to user fee charges levied by government facilities.
With an estimated 30 million people infected with HIV and another 12 million children orphaned in Africa, the report accuses IMF of indirectly exacerbating the situation.

This latest report is not the first one to hit out at the Breton Woods institution. In 2003, the then World Bank vice-president, Joseph Stiglitz in his book 'Globalization and its Discontents’, accused IMF of operating undemocratically and exacerbating third world poverty through rigid and unworkable policies.

Mr Stiglitz further accuses the Fund of arrogance and disdain for those who disagree with its perspectives. He argued that IMF needs to be forced to disclose expected poverty and unemployment impact of its programmes.

“What is the need of submitting our budgetary estimates to IMF for approval before reading it yet we cannot consult players locally?” asked Mr Kerrow.