By Asmau Ahmad
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated increased systematic approach in making the resources budgeted for health sector more efficiently and effectively utilised.
Dr Chukwumuanya Igboekwu, Coordinator, WHO Southeast Zone, made the call at a two-day stakeholders’ engagement and Co-creation workshop on Cross Programmatic Efficiency Analysis (CPEA) Project, in Awka, Anambra state.
Igboekwu said that such systematic approach would address inefficiencies, duplications and misalignments that were constituting waste in nation’s healthcare systems.
He also called for joint planning between government and donor partners to ensure efficient allocation of available resources.
“The WHO has severally encouraged state governments on increased budgetary allocation to the health sector for human capital management and development.
“We are also canvassing for more systematic approach to making the resources budgeted to the health sector to be more efficiently and effectively utilised.
“If we can identify inefficiencies and entrench culture of efficiency from planning to implementation stages of various projects, unnecessary wastages will be minimised,” he said.
The coordinator said that the workshop was to help stakeholders identify inefficiencies in the health system and develop implementable remedial actions towards addressing them.
“Anambra, Imo and Sokoto states are the pilot states for the CPEA project which would be extended to other states, drawing lessons learnt from the pilot states.
“The WHO is supporting this stakeholders’ engagement to establish a framework for further indepth analysis of health programmes.
“Health stakeholders would be able to analyse and identify where inefficiencies exist in health programmes, detect duplications and overlaps that constitute waste in the health systems,” he said.
In her remarks, Mrs Edith Nwachukwu, Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Anambra State Ministry of Health, identified health governance, financing and service delivery as some of the areas with inefficiencies in the health sector.
She promised that the ministry would continue to emphasise the need for stakeholders to prioritise healthcare issues from budgeting to implementation to ensure efficiency and impact.
