By Muhammad Amaan
Commissioners for Health, Executive Secretaries of Health Agencies from states and other health stakeholders have re-affirmed their commitment strengthening primary healthcare and child survival initiatives.
They spoke in Abuja on Thursday during a meeting on “Integrated Child Survival Advocacy.
During the event there were discussions on policy priorities, financing, and accountability mechanisms for health agencies at the state and local government level.
Others at the meeting were health officers from the federal institutions, development partners, and civil society leaders.
The event came under CSA Project which focuses on six states, namely Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Sokoto state.
The project is supported by Nana Girls and Women Empowerment Initiative, and Civil Society in Making Control Immunisation and Nutrition (ACOMIN).
ICSA Project Lead, Dr Nihinlola Mabogunje, said the engagement was part of a broader effort to strengthen public systems and leadership for child health, through evidence-based advocacy and intergovernmental coordination.
She said the project also aimed at sustainable financing for primary health care.
According to her, there is need to fashion out practical actions the states can take to improve service delivery and reinforce accountability to communities.
Mabogunje said that ICSA would advocate resources to be made available for state health agencies, to enable every child have a good quality of life.
Dr Fatima Adamu said that the states which were selected to test-run the project were having not impressive indices on terms of child survival.
“We are determined to carry this advocacy to the lower level, the communities with mother and child as our target.
“The only way we can do that is to engage with those close to the communities.
“We are talking about child survival, and that has to go with immunisation. you know, there is serious hesitance. For example, in some of the states, we have as low as 20 per cent poverty in immunization.
“We are determined to improve immunization coverage and reduce the hesitancy. Parent should be taking their children for immunization. The second one is about malaria. Many children are dying as a result of malaria,” she said.
According to her, this is worrisome, because all the sicknesses are preventable.
Dr Farouk Abubakar, Commissioner for Health, Sokoto State who shared his experience, said the state has high number of maternal and infant mortality.
He said there was need for strategies that would crash the maternal and infant mortality rates in the state and appreciated the initiators of the project and Federal Ministry of Health for its support.
Abubakar said that government was already tackling the drivers of high maternal and infant mortality rates.
