FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09 MAY 2025
Lusaka, Zambia
The Alliance for Community Action (ACA) expresses deep concern over the United States’ decision to withdraw $50 million in annual health funding due to the persistent theft of donated medicines in Zambia. This development underscores the urgent need for robust accountability mechanisms within Zambia’s health sector to safeguard critical resources meant for public welfare.
The theft of medication to the extent that the US embassy reports is an indictment on Zambia’s own systems. Disturbing is that this punitive response by the US government is one of many that have happened because of high-level corruption at the Ministry of Health. The question is what needs to happen for the government to protect resources meant for the most vulnerable sector of the country?
For years, ACA has advocated for transparency, ethical governance, and prudent public resource accountability, emphasizing the importance of strengthening oversight and taking corrective actions to address corruption and mismanagement of public resources. The ACA and wider civil society have called for strengthened internal controls that prevent the loss of public resources that the nation now knows are never fully recovered, even if perpetrators are identified.
In our work, the ACA is always confronted with citizens, especially the urban and rural poor, bitterly complaining about the lack of even the most basic drugs in government health facilities. It is troubling to know that these are medicines that citizens could and should have had, if only the government had carried out its critical duty to prevent, address and punish the brazen theft of public resources that is a characteristic of service delivery in Zambia.
Following the US withdrawal of health funding
The ACA calls on the government to:
- Institute an urgent and transparent investigation into the health care sector in Zambia, with emphasis on the delivery of drugs.
- Take decisive action against all actors involved in the illegal diversion of medicines
- Expose and fix all vulnerabilities found and implement lasting reforms to bring sanity to our medical supply chain.
The ACA cautions the government against using low-level actors as scapegoats in this matter. Arresting young salespersons whose crime is probably, at most, being employed in a pharmacy connected to a crooked, powerful person is both cynical and an insult to the intelligence of Zambian citizens. The response to this matter should rather target the full chain of corruption, especially senior officials in the Ministry of Health and health facilities.
It is our prayer that the government’s response to this matter will not end with speeches and half-measures that aim at waiting for the public to move on to another controversy. The cut in funding to our health sector by a country that has carried a significant percentage of Zambia’s total health budget for years must jolt the government into long overdue action against Zambian public resources being routinely diverted to private pockets. It must also reawaken powerholders that theft of public resources is a crime against Zambians.
The ACA remains committed to holding duty-bearers accountable and ensuring public resources serve the people they are intended for.
Issued by;
Florence Siska
Senior Programs Officer
Alliance for Community Action