Temple de Vaudoo de Ouidah

The 31st PBF course took place in Cotonou – Benin September 16-27, 2013.  The report contains the recommendations of the seven countries represented during the PBF course (Benin, Burkina Faso, Republic of Congo, Burundi, Niger, Mali and Nigeria). PBF is now settling in francophone and anglophone countries worldwide such as Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Burundi, Rwanda and many more to follow.

The 37 participants of the Cotonou PBF course

Despite the successes of PBF it also became clear that there are problems to solve such as in Benin: (1) The Belgium Cooperation in their PBF project allocates $ 1.00 per capita / year and the World Bank $ 2.00, while this should at least be $ 3.00; (2) Government health facilities in Benin depend on an inefficient monopolised and centralised system for distributing essential drugs and other inputs; (3) The autonomy of health facilities is still restricted, particularly for investments and the recruitment of staff; (4) A too large part of the Benin PBF budget is allocated for hospitals instead of for the primary level; (5) Private for-profit health facilities do not have the same chance of being contracted as public health facilities; (6) The different aid agencies (WB, BTC, GF, GAVI) in Benin have different PBF approaches. Hence the Ministry of Health has difficulties in coordinating their efforts.

The Burkina Faso group impressed by showing their upscaled PBF program that will cover 4.5 million people in 2014. Yet, Burkina Faso still needs to define how to incorporate the for-profit private sector.

The Burundi participants presented the impressive improvements of their health indicators thanks to the advanced PBF design and implementation. Yet, Burundi also struggles with the monopolisation of their essential drugs distribution system and the absence of the PBF investment unit system.

The participants from the Republic of Congo presented their government’s aim to upscale PBF nationwide with support of the World Bank. However, also the ROC still still needs to solve problems related to the centralised essential drugs distribution and how to integrate the private for-profit sector.

Niger, Mali and Nigeria are represented in the course with one-person delegations. Nigeria is in an advanced pilot stage of PBF covering some 10 million people. Yet, Mali and Niger have not yet started PBF pilot programs and the participants form these countries will lobby for such pilots to start as soon as possible.