Civil society groups seek stronger actions against child killer diseases

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and the Partnership For Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) have called for stronger actions against childhood killer diseases and effective promotion of family health matters.

This was stated in a communiqué during a two-day Training on Budget Tracking for Media Champions in Child and Family Health, held at Akwanga, Nassarawa state August 23.

The groups and other participants canvassed stronger actions against the identified areas, however, proposing media as an essential tool to amplify issues in child and family health in effective, acceptable and credible manners.

The communiqué said it recognises the linkage and integration among child and family health issues such as nutrition, routine immunisation, family planning and treatment of childhood killer diseases.”

They called on stakeholders to give desired attention and adopt due diligence tracking, monitoring and reporting of health budgetary allocation, release and utilisation through creative communication, simplified and analytical approach.

Participants lamented the little priority accorded child and family health in the country that could help in accessing accurate, authoritative and reliable sources to inform their advocacy to the relevant stakeholders to promote child and family health at all levels.

Lack of political will from the part of leaders in the fulfilment of various commitments to child and family health was also identified as one of the leading bottlenecks for achieving proper health care. The societies thus challenged state and the federal government to make amends.

The workshop harped on recommended guidelines (such as Amoxicillin Dispersible Tablets and Zinc/Lo-ORS) as first line treatment of pneumonia and diarrhoea by the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC) to prevent the death of children under 5.

Journalists were encouraged to delve much into investigative journalism to interrogate health budgetary processes to promote judicious utilisation of funds through the jointly established platform, Media Champions in Child and Family Health of Nigeria (MeCCFaHN).