Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation receives a grant of € 71,5 million

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced the grants for the 2011-2015 ‘medefinancieringsstelsel’ (MFSII). HealthNet TPO participated in two consortia: a joint venture of CARE Netherlands, ZOA Refugee Care, Save the Children and HealthNet TPO formed the “Dutch Consortium for Rehabilitation” (DCR), and together with PharmAccess the Health Access Consortium (HAC).

The DCR is one of the 19 consortia that will receive a grant. In this case € 71.5 million for five years, to work on a cross-sectoral approach to rehabilitation in Burundi, the DR Congo, Liberia, North and South Sudan, and Uganda. The DCR will focus on rehabilitation of public services, good governance and livelihood.

The DCR is working out plans to manage the 26% cut backs in the requested budget. MFS II starts in January 2011, and half December the Dutch government may decide to cut back another 12.5%, since the current government decided to reduce the Dutch aid from 0.8% to 0.7% of the GNP.

The HAC proposal was aimed at improving access to quality health care, through a radical change in approach towards the public and private sectors. The content of the project is supported by the Dutch ministry, but ironically, the proposal was turned down on formal grounds. Both PharmAccess and HealthNet TPO are discussing alternative ways to proceed ollaboration with the Dutch Government on this approach.