Speaking Wednesday at the opening of a three-day stakeholder consultation Workshop for desired Health outcomes at a local hotel in Paynesville, World Bank Liberia Country Manager Larisa Leshchenko stated that the three-day workshop is intended to identify and subsequently address institutional constraints in order to achieve the desired outcomes in the healthcare delivery system of Liberia.
Leshchenko noted that it is true that Liberia is building and improving its healthcare infrastructure including training of healthcare workers, but indicated that health outcomes suggest that much needs to be done to improve the overall sector.
“We are concerned about maternal mortality rates and teenage death rates which are amongst the highest in West Africa and the world. Too many mothers are dying and too many young girls are not experiencing childhood the way they should .The Human Capital index released in September 2018, ranks Liberia at 153 of 157 countries,” Leshchenko said.
The World Bank official said that if Liberia must improve its rating on the human capital index and improve health outcomes, it needs to think much more about the critical pathways to results, adding that institutional reform is critical to achieving such outcomes.
In remarks at the workshop, Liberia’s Health Minister Wilhelmina Jallah acknowledged that the Liberian health sector is faced with many challenges, but stressed that there have also been numerous gains in the sector that do not need to be celebrated.
She lamented that the positive outcomes desired by the Liberian people are not consistent in the health sector adding that at certain points of time statistics are good and sometimes bad.
Notwithstanding, Minister Jallah cited that the sector has recorded numerous gains which include; strengthening of surveillance that enable health officers prevent and control health threats, the
provision of specialized training for 28 specialties, school eye- health system launch, housing development for staffs, amongst others.
“We want to improve the health sector and put Liberia on the map for good things; not for bad things,” Jallah pointed out..