Senegal’s Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) must be provided with substantial financial resources to enable it to better organise the response to COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre’s Director, Dr Abdoulaye Bousso said on Friday.
“If we didn’t have the support of our partners, we would close. The 50 million CFA francs allocated to us is for operations. We can do absolutely nothing without resources. There is a real urgency to have the necessary funds. Today we are able to deploy all over the country because there are partners,” said Dr. Bousso.
He was taking part in a webinar organised by the Pan-African Institute for Citizenship, Consumers and Development (CICODEV), in partnership with Enda Health and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) on the theme: “Sustainable health financing in the face of a health crisis.”
The COUS Director went on to say it was important to have financial resources capable of responding to all epidemics. Because, he said, “we must be able to have these funds. So, I insist on financing prevention. Because it allows us to be more effective and efficient in the response.”
He recalled that the resources of COUS have decreased from 75 million to 51 million between 2017 and 2020.
According to Dr Youssoupha Ndiaye, Director of Planning, Research and Statistics (DPRS) of the Ministry of Health and Social Action (MSAS), there will always be health emergencies, hence the need, in his opinion, “to have planning and financial resources,” “to prioritise state resources” and to put in place “a budget line” to carry out “rapid responses to epidemics.”
He advocated for “an emergency fund in the initial Finance Act (LFI).”
TE/lb/abj/APA