The Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), an organization advocacy for child and family health under the aegis of Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFAH) has called on the Nasarawa State Government to pay maximum attention to issues affecting family planning, routine immunization, Nutrition and child killer diseases, through adequate and timely release of budgetary allocation.
The organization made this call during a recent advocacy visit to the Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Silas Agara in Lafia.
Speaking at the meeting which was held at the state National Planning Commission conference hall had in attendance representatives of SMoH, SPHCDA, and 16 CSOs working in the issue area. At the meeting, the data and information in the advocacy presentation was harmonized to validate the findings of the study conducted earlier in the year.
Speaking at the meeting Dr. Mohammed Saleh, the PACFaH Project Director and head of the delegation commended the giant strides and achievements of the administration which had seen the addition of the 3 model health facilities strategically located within the state, completion of the school of Nursing. The giant stride according to Dr Saleh also includes the renovation of all the secondary health facilities and the full implementation of the Primary Health Care under One Roof (PHCOUR).
The program manager of HERFON Dr. Adeleke Oluwaseun, briefly brought to bear the burden which poor family planning services poses to the society. She recalled the story of a woman who lost her life in the process of delivering her eleventh child with nine children living due to lack of access to proper maternal health services and family planning options.
Dr. Oluwaseun reinstated that the partnership is working to improve government’s understanding of challenges that confront child and family health and solicit government’s intervention to address them by fulfilling policy, budgetary and administrative commitments by focusing on the programmatic scope of four key issues: family planning, routine immunization, Nutrition and child killer diseases ( Diarrhea and pneumonia).
Hon. Silas A. Agara the deputy Governor of Nasarawa state applauded the PACFaH for selecting Nasarawa state as one of her focal states, the governor stated that the state government had ensured that all primary health care (PHC) facilities are coordinated and operational. However, he said “operationalization effectiveness is challenged with the payment of salaries and enrolments, from the local governments and passage of support bills by the legislative arm”.
He also emphasized on the need for 100% empowerment of the SPHCDA to handle primary health care PHC to the interest of the entire public and citizens of the state. This status he stated “requires the support of the legislators in readdressing relevant polices that are hindering the agency from performing to optimum, and to seek the support and cooperation the Local Government from which some PHC have been taken”.
To this end, he strongly canvassed for the advocacy engagement with the state law makers and local government authority to support the 100% implementation and operationalization of the PHC agency. This development according to him, will tackle human resource for health in terms of staffing capacity and adequacy, and reducing the corruption in the health system of the state.
