MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
Downer
Australia will provide $19.5 million to help improve health services in some of the poorest regions of the Philippines.
I was pleased to announce this assistance at the official launch of the six-year Integrated Community Health Services Project in Koronadal, South Cotabato yesterday (20 February).
Our contribution will complement US$51.1 million being provided by the Asian Development Bank plus funding by the Government of the Philippines.
This project is the largest health initiative that AusAID has supported in the Philipines. Australian assistance will directly target the people of the provinces of South Cotabato and Surigao del Norte, in Mindanao.
The project's overall aim is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local health systems. It will seek to improve the ability of health providers to plan, manage and finance health services to ensure that they are more responsive to the needs of disadvantaged communities.
Under this initiative, Filipino non-government organisations and community groups will receive grants to help provide better training for health workers, improve community health programs and establish community health resource centres.
Special attention will be given to ensuring that women, children and people living in remote areas have access to better health services.
A principal priority is to reduce the incidence of major diseases in children, including pneumonia, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, malaria and schistosomiasis.
Australia's official overseas aid program is providing total funding of $63 million for health projects in the Philippines, with the major aim of reducing the high childhood and maternal death rate.
MANILA
Media contacts:
Judi Nixon (Mrs Sullivan's office) 07 5591 1011/0411 287 258
Deborah Nesbitt (AusAID, Canberra) 02 6206 4966/0417 683 767