O' Donnell Allocates £650,000 for Emergency Medical Supplies for Mozambique
These funds had originally been allocated in the Ireland Aid Mozambique budget for essential supplies for the Mozambican health services as part of a health sector support programme funded by Ireland and other donors. However, the urgent need now is for vaccines against cholera and meningitis and anti-malarial medications for the emergency response programme.
The Minister said:
"I was glad to be able to re-allocate these funds as requested by the Mozambican Government. We are also ready to top-up the Ireland Aid country budget for Mozambique so as to ensure that the normal programmes can be re-started as soon as possible and are not left short as a result of the priority quite rightly being given at this point to emergency operations".
This measure follows earlier initiatives including:
=A3400,000 of emergency assistance through Irish NGOs and international agencies
Reallocation from development projects to emergency response measures of =A31m provided in the Ireland Aid country budget for Inhambane - one of the worst-affected areas a pro-active role at EU and international level pressing for debt relief and other large-scale assistance for Mozambique.