HEALTH SPENDING IN EL SALVADOR - euroresources.org

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HEALTH SPENDING IN EL SALVADOR
RECOMMENDATIONS TO
STAKEHOLDERS IN THE EU
AND IN EL SALVADOR
COUNTRY OWNERSHIP,
CIVIL SOCIETY
PARTICIPATION AND THE
PARLIAMENT
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There is a need for donors and the
government to further take advantage,
during their decision-making processes, of
CSOs’ expertise with service delivery,
specifically with regard to working with
communities and reaching the most
vulnerable.
Continuous quality control of public
health services delivery will be necessary –
preferably by involving CSOs with the
required sector-expertise. In general, the
relationship between public and private
entities should be pushed towards
collaboration and complementarities, rather
than competition and rivalry.
CSOs should be engaged at every stage of
the programme cycle, including the design,
implementation and monitoring of national
programmes.
Continuous efforts need to be made by the
government and European donors to
support the involvement of a greater
diversity of CSOs, including health and
women’s organisations, vulnerable groups,
as well as CBOs in these processes. To that
end, the latter will need to receive
specifically targeted support in order for
them to be able to attend, understand and
value these processes.
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To the same end, more efforts need to made
in order to improve and strengthen the
relationship between INGOs, local NGOs,
CBOs, local authorities and Members of
Parliament in El Salvador in order to ensure
that these alliances contribute to true
country ownership of development policies.
Donors should therefore actively seek to
support partnership-building among all
actors.
Some CSOs in El Salvador recommend
undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of
programmes implemented in the health
sector, by including an impact evaluation of
CSOs’ contribution to the sector.
In the newly established social participation
mechanisms, any favouritism based on
party affiliation needs to be strongly
condemned by the government, for instance
by establishing a code of conduct for
government officials, CSOs and donors, in
order to jointly tackle what could be
considered as one of El Salvador’s biggest
obstacles to good governance: The high
degree of party polarisation affecting every
sphere of society.
Mutual accountability and trust between the
government, donors and Civil Society could
be enhanced through the establishment of a
publicly accessible online development
database where all actors are asked to
indicate and regularly update the
programmes they are implementing in El
Salvador. For this tool to be truly effective, it
needs to be linked to the budget cycle and
planning. The IATI initiative could provide
guidance in that respect.
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CSOs in El Salvador would welcome
increased funding made available for
advocacy-capacity building, but some
would like to see an increased focus being
put on ensuring that CSOs have the
technical capacities and knowledge
necessary for undertaking advocacy
activities at policy-making level. Increased
efforts also need to be made by civil society
organisations themselves in order to put
advocacy capacity-building on the donors’
agenda, for instance by submitting
advocacy project proposals.
DSW – German Foundation for World Population
www.dsw-brussels.org