By Iyema David
The Minister of State, Health Senator Adeleke Mamora, has said that the historic pledge to allocate at least 15 per cent of annual budgets to the health sector by African governments requires collaboration for all stakeholders to meet the pledge in Nigeria.
Mamora made the call on Thursday at the Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the 2022 World Health Day, which is celebrated every year on April 7, to raise awareness about the ongoing health issues that concern people across the world.
According to the reports that twenty years ago, heads of state and government for African Union for countries came together at a summit to address the challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases plaguing the region.
On April 27, 2001, several commitments including Nigeria’s 15 per cent budget pledge were made to bolster resources and improve health care across Africa.
The Minister said that the President Mohammad Buhari’s administration was committed to the Abuja declaration pledge and also to the Global Health Security Agenda on domestic sustainable funding for health security, because sustainable funding for health security was critical to protecting Nigerians.
“If Nigerians are looking strictly for the 15 percent Abuja declaration, they may not see it in the health sector budget, but a lot of things are happening but are not primarily issues of the health sector, let’s take example of Cholera, which is essentially an issue of WASH.
“The Ministry of Water Resources Development is the national lead agency for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector and it’s mandated to ensure that Nigerians has easy access to clean, adequate and affordable WASH facilities in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, that’s why the FMOH is collaborating with the ministry of Water Resources,” he explained.
He added that FMOH was also collaborating with the Ministry of Environment, to end open defecation in the country.
The minister said that a multi-sectoral approach was the best weapon used to address health challenges in the country.
Dr Edwin Isotu Edeh, Public Health and Environment (PHE) Programme Cordinator, (WHO) in Nigeria, said that WHO was supporting Nigerian’s response for any transition that was in the health system.
Edeh said that Nigeria was the first country in Africa to begin transition into decarbonize economy, a combination of systems that happened in 2021 when it signed a new commitment.
“WHO’s activities around this area are to raise awareness that global leadership take the responsibility for global leadership in driving the drill program for health system,” he said.
He said that in a multisectoral one-health approach and in furtherance to achieving the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), WHO shall support the development of Nigeria National Health Adaptation Plan (HNAP) and Conduct assessment of the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the health systems to climate change comprising essential public health interventions.
He noted that this would be in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and COP26 Health Programme.
He added that the world cannot afford to lose sight of the fundamental truth that the climate crisis, the single biggest threat facing humanity today, was also very much a health crisis.
Speaking on behalf of the Civil Society Organisations (CSO), Dr Uzodinma Adirieje, Chief Executive Officer, AfriHealth Optonet Association, said that CSOs stepped in when official communication channels failed to give people accurate information about how to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19 and other outbreaks in the country.
He added that when states partnered with civil society, or when governments created an enabling environment for the work of CSOs, the response to health issues in the country becomes much more effective.
The first World Health Day was celebrated and observed in 1950, after April 7 was set aside as a designated date to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 in the First Health Assembly.
The day thereby marks the anniversary of WHO after it was established in 1948.
