[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”!! PLEASE DO NOT EDIT !!!” _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”1″ admin_label=”!!! PLEASE DO NOT EDIT !!!” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.19.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”SUMMARY – Click on the WHEEL icon to open the textarea where you can paste or type your summary. Summary should be in bold and 250-300 characters. The counter at the bottom can help.” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”10px||20px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
Sierra Leone shows strong political leadership to explore the Debt Swap instrument \u00a0and holds a workshop to discuss next steps with key stakeholders from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and the Global Fund<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”TEXT – BLOCK 1 – Click on the WHEEL icon to open the textarea where you can paste or type your news. PLEASE USE THE USE ONLY THE FEATURED IMAGE FUNCTION on your right column to add the image.” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Sierra Leone is exploring innovative methods to increase the budgetary allocation for its health sector, and one mechanism that has shown potential is through debt swaps. Debt swap in health, also known as the debt2health program, refers to a situation in which a creditor country forgives the debt of another country on the condition that the latter invests the repayments in mutually agreed health system outcomes. To take this forward, a debt swap workshop was organized in Freetown last week by the Global Fund, which was attended by key stakeholders from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Central Bank, and the Legal Unit of MoF. Rafael Molina, an experienced advisor on public-sector debt challenges, facilitated the event. The MoF and MoHS provided strong leadership support for this instrument by sending their leaders to the workshop.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][ba_gradient_heading title=”Why debt swap?” html_tag=”h2″ primary_color=”#455A64″ secondary_color=”#455A64″ admin_label=”HEADING (50-60 characters)” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”||||||||” title_font_size=”32px” title_line_height=”1em” width=”68%” max_width=”69%” custom_padding=”15px||10px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/ba_gradient_heading][et_pb_text admin_label=”TEXT – BLOCK 2 ” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||1em||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Debt swaps can create more fiscal space in the budget for health by redirecting payments that would have gone to creditors to health, potentially helping Sierra Leone meet the regional target of allocating 15% of the budget to health. They can also attract additional funding from other donors and serve as Sierra Leone\u2019s co-financing portion for grants from the GF. This effort to use debt swaps will be combined with ongoing efforts to increase efficiency in health spending.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][ba_gradient_heading title=”Next steps?” html_tag=”h4″ primary_color=”#455A64″ secondary_color=”#455A64″ admin_label=”HEADING (50-60 characters)” _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” title_font=”||||||||” title_font_size=”32px” title_line_height=”1em” custom_padding=”15px||10px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/ba_gradient_heading][et_pb_text admin_label=”TEXT – BLOCK 5″ _builder_version=”4.21.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||1em||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Sierra Leone has now entered the proposal writing stage following the conclusion of the workshop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> We will keep following the process and provide updates as the process moves along.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sierra Leone shows strong political leadership to explore the Debt Swap instrument \u00a0and holds a workshop to discuss next steps with key stakeholders from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health and the Global FundSierra Leone is exploring innovative methods to increase the budgetary allocation for its health sector, and one mechanism that has shown…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1293,"featured_media":987642095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[],"tags":[133],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/987642092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987642092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/987642092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987642714,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/987642092\/revisions\/987642714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987642095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987642092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987642092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987642092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}