A pre-budget webinar titled “Public Expenditure for Health Sector: Proposals for FY2021-22” in light of the study titled ‘Analysis of Health Budget Allocation and Expenditure in Bangladesh’ was organized by Unnayan Samannay in collaboration with Bangladesh Health Watch on Saturday, 8 May 2021. 

Dr. Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury opened the discussion highlighting the urgency of prioritizing the increase of allocation for health sector and bringing reforms to the health system. 

The keynote paper was presented by Dr. Atiur Rahman, Former Governor of Bangladesh Bank and Chairperson of Unnayan Shamannay. The paper emphasized on the current trends of allocations and expenditures of health budget. Bangladesh falls behind its South Asian neighbours in terms public-private health expenditure as share of GDP and in terms of per capita health expenditure. He also said that the public expenditure as percent of GDP is lowest in South Asia. Total health expenditure in Bangladesh is equivalent to 2.34 percent of the GDP and per capita health expenditure is only USD 110. The share of public expenditure for health in total public expenditure has been hovering around 5 percent for the last decade. Experts believe this ratio should be increased to 7 percent in the coming FY2021-22, and 10-12 percent in the medium term of the 8th Five-Year Plan. 

Dr. Atiur stressed on planning a health centric budget in order to overcome the pandemic situation. He also emphasized on allocating additional budget for vaccination so that Bangladesh can vaccinate at least 60 percent of its population in a year. He also pointed out that 70% of the population avail primary healthcare services where only 25% of the budget is spent. It has to be increased.   

Discussants emphasized on the need to implement universal health coverage (UHC) across the country immediately for making the country ready for Vision 2041. They also emphasized among others increasing the allocation for vaccines, family planning, strengthening governance of health system, recruiting skilled manpower for utilizing and maintaining sophisticated equipment in hospitals and strengthening community clinics and primary healthcare (PHC). 

They further emphasized on minimizing inter-ministerial complications and removing cadre discrimination. They also stressed for increased focus on non-communicable diseases and bringing people under health insurance and recruiting more healthcare workers to meet the need. 

Honorable Minister of Planning MA Mannan, MP, who was present at the webinar as the Chief Guest proposed to raise allocation for primary healthcare to 50%. He also supported increased budget for  Community Clinics. Others who spoke on the occasion included National Professor Dr Shahla Khatun, Former Minister of Health AFM Ruhal Haque, Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury, Maleka Begum of Mahila Parishad, Aroma Dutta, MP, Shirin Akhter, MP and Dr. Md. Habibe Millat, MP.