The Ministry of Health has called on the government to allocate more funding in the form of anticipatory budget support to the Uganda Red Cross Society, to boost their capacity for disaster response.
The Ministry’s Director Public Health Daniel Kyabazinye said the government needs to find more money to cushion the Red Cross, which is always at the forefront of all kinds of disasters, so that it doesn’t have to rely too much on foreign funding.
“We need that standby money because when tragedy hits tomorrow people have to move. This business of saying we have to look for the money when tragedy has already happened prevents us from intervening in time and people might end up dead or the disaster getting out of hand,” he said.
Kyabazinye was speaking Wednesday at the launch of the World Disaster Report 2022, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Kampala.
The launch, which coincided with the commemoration of the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day 2023, was held under the theme; “everything we do comes from the heart.”
Robert Kwesiga, the Uganda Red Cross Secretary General, said at the event that over-reliance on foreign donations in times like this is proving difficult.
We need about 40 billion if we are to do what we are talking about effectively. Response, you cannot plan it to the dot because it depends on the magnitude and the context but these other aspects of preparedness mitigation and early warning that money can make a big difference if we can mobilize it.
“These development partners are difficult. If a disaster happens in Bulambuli for instance; they want you to do an assessment, they want a feasibility study, they want you to write a proposal, they want you to change the English, and by the time you get the money, it is months after,” he said.
“We think therefore that the Government can do more in supporting us. You created us as the Red Cross, but also we have proved that we can do the job. So can we where possible be given more support because what we deliver, we do on your behalf as government and you get to take the credit. For us we don’t want it.”
Kwesiga said the Red Cross currently needs about Shs 40billion for its day to day work.
Speaking remotely from Kyankwanzi, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, who represented Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, expressed the government’s appreciation of the work being done by the Red Cross, and said committed more support.
“Government is committed to continue working with the Uganda Red Cross Society to boost interventions aimed at enhancing preparedness and response to disasters,” she said.
On her part, Hin Davina Anyakun, the Minister of State for Disaster Preparedness thanked the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for the World Disaster Report 2022, which she said will go a long way in guiding the government and other stakeholders to prepare better for disasters.
“We hope to learn a lot from this report about issues of prevention, data collection and more. We appreciate that the report is giving us more information as government to see how to work globally on issues of disaster preparedness,” Anyakun said.