Ministry of Health Owes Healthcare Workers for 2024 HPV Campaign
30 September 2026 by Limpho Sello
Healthcare workers who worked during the HPV vaccination campaign in 2024 and the measles campaign have not been paid their stipends, despite the Ministry of Health having funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to pay them.
This emerged during a debriefing meeting of the Gavi mission to Lesotho held on 25 September 2026 in Maseru.
Gavi Senior Country Manager, Jonna Jeurlink, said the mission came to Lesotho to understand the strengths and challenges of the immunisation programme, monitor the country’s existing grant and prepare for the next grant-making period, known as Gavi 6.0.
During the mission, Gavi encountered situations where funding had been made available but had not reached lower levels of the health system.
“When we met with the healthcare workers at the facility, we learned that they still haven’t been paid for the HPV campaign from 2024. Also measles campaign, those stipends have not been paid out,” she said.
According to Jeurlink, this creates a situation where activities have been implemented while the funding remains recorded as unspent.
“In Gavi that is being interpreted as underutilised,” she said.
She warned that this could lead to a perception at Gavi headquarters that Lesotho was not using the funding available to it and therefore might not require the full amount.
“It’s really important that we address these bottlenecks in financial management and the fund flow,” she said.
Jeurlink said Gavi would bring in targeted financial technical assistance to strengthen capacity and improve absorption.
She also warned of a reputational risk if healthcare workers were not paid on time, pointing to experiences in other countries where unpaid health workers had gone on strike and refused to participate in future campaigns until outstanding payments were made.
Among the opportunities identified was the use of digital payments to ensure that EPI stakeholders at lower levels receive payments on time.
Jeurlink said Gavi had experience with digital payments in other countries and believed the approach could help make the flow of funds faster and ensure that critical stakeholders receive their payments in time.
She also called for stronger coordination between programme and finance teams, saying the two areas often operate separately despite being closely connected.
“It’s really important that they come together, that the right hand and the left hand know of each other,” she said.
Jeurlink said of the most pressing issues identified during the mission concerned the flow and absorption of Gavi funding. Under Gavi 6.0, Jeurlink said the Alliance would apply a stricter interpretation of the principle of “use it or lose it”.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health ‘Mamokete Ntšekhe directed her ministry’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) team to ensure that available funding must translate into action.
“When you look at me, you can probably estimate my age,” she said, before adding that she would not want to stand before parliament and the nation to explain why available funding had not been absorbed.
“My height will not allow, my age will not allow and probably my complexion as well will not allow me to stand and explain why we did not work,” she said.
