Stakeholders In Health Seek Operationalization Of Primary Health Care Centers

As part of efforts to strengthen primary health care delivery and improve child survival outcomes at the local government level,  stakeholders in the health sector have called for the operationalization of Primary Health Care centers in the country.

At the Integrated Child Survival Advocacy at the Last Mile (ICSA) Project National Strategic Alignment Meeting with State Leadership in Abuja, experts also stressed the need for Community Accountability, care seeking behavior, digital transformation and innovation as well as sustainable financing.

Addressing newsmen, the Deputy Director, Department of Planning and Research Statistics, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Gbenga Ijaodola said government was aligning, leveraging on every resource that were available in the country to ensure a rightful value for all activities.

” When I say resources, it is not just funding, We are also pulling together resources of having one direction, in terms of the various capacities across board with all key stakeholders in Nigeria.”

”And then we started that based on the current data that we have, what are the areas that we need to focus on, so one of the days when we do things generally, now we are targeting, going down to the basic,” Dr Ijaodola said.

”At the local government, at the community level, where exactly are our indices not speaking? How do we ensure that we impact on the populace at that particular level?

Dr Ijaodola confirmed that the ministry engages with various key stakeholders that are responsible for ensuring implementation at the state and local government levels to achieve the target goals.

Also the Head of Mission Center for Well-Being and Integrated Nutrition Solutions, Dr. Mahmoud Mustafa Zuberu noted that programe is an advocacy project, and the Center for Well-Being and Integrated Nutrition Solutions has had tremendous experience with advocacy projects in the past.

According to him, ”One of the successes I think I can refer back to is the introduction of the Measles Rubella across the entire country, which we did very successfully, very well with the first one states that have implemented.”

” So we’re well-positioned to do this project across five states to improve child survival, and we’re up and doing it, and this is just the first stepping stone to it.”

”So” we picked five states, and Osun State as a comparator state, the five states are from the northwest, you have Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Sokoto.

The project Lead for the ICSA project, Nihinlola Mabogunje advocated for adequate resources to actualize the project.

”So if the resources are made available, it means that the child would have a good quality of life.”

”In December, we had a meeting with key stakeholders, namely the government, NPHCDA, Federal Ministry of Health, and partners like UNICEF, Health Sector Reform were there, Pathfinder.”

” The key one is we’re going to have an accountability system set up at the community level, they would follow up every commitment made by the government and ensure that there’s a cash backing, and not just a cash backing, that the cash are used for what it’s expected to be used for, ”she added.

On her part, the Executive Director of Nana Girls and Women Empowerment Initiative, Dr Fatima Adamu said the ICSA project was about advocating for improved child survival in five states.

”And these states are Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Kaduna, and Katsina, and it is really working with the community and the community influencers to ensure that there are enough finances to provide for child survival services.”

”As you know, these states have serious indices, poor indices in terms of child survival, so what we are planning to do is to hand over the responsibility of children care and really to the community for community to demand and demand for such services.”

Dr Fatima noted that the advocacy project was to improve the services in the community.

” And this is very critical because most of these activities are really centered at the high level, we wanted to reach to the lower level, to the community, to the mother, to the mother and her child.”

”And the only way we can do that is to engage with the community influencers to make sure that happens.”

Addressing four indicators which the project focuses on, the Executive Director explained that one was to ensure child survival, malaria,

”We are talking about preventable things, so issue of immunization, you know, there is serial hesitancy.”

”For example, in some of the states, we have as low as 20% coverage of immunization, so that’s when we want to improve immunization coverage and reduce the hesitancy, Parents, mothers should be taking their children for immunization.”

She stressed the need to engage with state and local government for them to spend the money in the right direction.