By Muhammad Amaan
In an efforts to strengthen accountability in family planning programs and interventions, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) team led by Advocacy and Accountability Specialist, Aqibu Hamisu, has paid an advocacy visit to Director General, Kano State Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency (DMCSA).
The purpose of the visit was to brief the agency on the project currently been implemented by AHBN on Strengthening Accountability for Women’s Health.
And also seek collaboration with agency on tracking the distribution and utilisation of family planning commodities, and generating stock out data of family planning to support evidence base advocacy engagement.
In his remarks, Director General of DMCSA, Pharmacist Gali Sule expressed appreciation to AHBN team for their timely interventions in promoting accountability in women’s health- a critical health issues prioritised by the government.
He highlighted the agency’s progress in integrating family planning commodities into the Essential Drugs Revolving Fund (EDRF) to address distribution challenges and enhance the accountability and transparency of these commodities.
Pharm. Sule also acknowledged the contributions of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated family planning commodities worth millions of naira for distribution across the state.
He assured the team that the agency is making concerted efforts to ensure these commodities reach the last mile without logistical hindrances by integrating them into essential drug supplies. This approach simplifies distribution and facilitates the tracking of utilisation.
The director general also commended the efforts of Gate Foundation, which donated family planning commodities worth millions of naira for distribution to health facilities across the state.
He assured the team that the agency is making concerted efforts to ensure these commodities reach the last mile without any logistics hindrance through integrating them into essential drug supply.
This approach simplifies distribution and facilitates tracking of the utilization.
Reflecting on developments since the integration of family planning commodities into the essential drug supply system, Pharm. Sule noted that before this initiative, these commodities were not stored in the pharmacy units of Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs), and there was no formal record-keeping system for their utilization.
He, however, said that with the current integration, the commodities are now properly stored in pharmacies, and records are meticulously maintained.
The director general also highlighted some challenges faced by the agency which include; the sustainability of the Family Planning commodities supply as a big challenge, proliferation of sub-standard and fake FP commodities in the markets as a result of stock out of free commodities.
He further called on the AHBN team to support the agency in advocating for full integration of FP services into medical supply chain at the ministry of health and budgetary allocation of FP as seed capital for the agency to source out quality and affordable FP commodities and wire housed them in case there is supply breaks by the supporting partners.
He equally underscore the need for capacity building training of FP and MCH Coordinators on understanding the integration process and how to take full advantage of the system.
While acknowledging progress, the DG outlined several challenges faced by the agency, which includes sustainability of family planning commodity supply, ensuring a consistent supply remains a major challenge.
Others are; proliferation of substandard and fake family planning commodities; stock-outs of free commodities have led to the availability of counterfeit alternatives in the market.
To address the challenges, the DG urged AHBN to support the agency in advocating for the full integration of family planning services into the medical supply chain under the Ministry of Health.
He advocated for increased budgetary allocation for family planning to serve as seed capital, enabling the agency to procure quality, affordable commodities and store them as a buffer against supply disruptions from donor partners.
“Capacity-building training for Family Planning (FP) and Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Coordinators to enhance their understanding of the integration process and maximize the benefits of the system.”
In his remarks, AHBN Knowledge Management Officer, Sulaiman Jalo thanked the DG for his quick response to the call and reaffirmed AHBN commitments to strengthening the partnership established.
He assured the DG that the advocacy issues raised would be carried forward to relevant stakeholders for further actions.
