South Sudan’s health ministry has issued new directives limiting the activities of international NGOs working in healthcare.
Among the 10 guiding principles are an obligation for the NGOs to deposit their money into a single account to be called “the unified healthcare partners’ account” at the central bank.
It is feared that the new measures could impede the activities of NGOs in the country that has been affected by conflicts and severely hit by recent flooding.
But the government argues that this would aid accountability and make auditing and tracing money very easy.
Health ministry official Mayen Machut also said that NGOs are forbidden from employing young South Sudanese medical professional as they “have caused an internal brain-drain of healthcare professionals in South Sudan”.