Are Britain’s health projects in Zimbabwe failing?

Britain’s Shadow Minister for International Development Gavin Shuker says Westminster’s health care projects totaling £500 million, including those in Zimbabwe, are failing. Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening says they are not.

Shuker asked in the House of Commons on Wednesday what Britain intended to do to transform those projects and prove that universal coverage was not only desirable but achievable.

Greening said Shuker was talking about just a small number of the many projects that Britain was implementing. She was focused on achieving goals because there was no clear focus on impact under the previous government.

Britain has insisted before that its aid to Zimbabwe, currently being channeled through civil society, is not charity.

Q & A:

Gavin Shuker (Shadow Minister (International Development); Luton South, Labour): – How does the Secretary of State intend to achieve these health goals when a third of the health care delivery projects that started on her Government’s watch are falling short? Schemes in Montserrat, Uganda, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Somalia—schemes totalling nearly £0.5 billion—are failing. What does she intend to do to transform those projects and prove that universal coverage is not only desirable but achievable?

Justine Greening (The Secretary of State for International Development; Putney, Conservative): – I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman is setting out just a small number of the many health programmes that the Department has under way. One of the key things I have done over the past year has been to strengthen our programme management and increase the focus on getting results for the Department. I can assure him that there is a heavy focus on achieving all the goals that we set ourselves. We set out the results very clearly when we came into government, because we felt that there was not a clear enough focus on impact under the last Government.

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