‘Community-centered approach key to tackling high maternal, child deaths’

The Country Lead, Evidence for Action (E4A-MamaYe) Programme, Esther Agbon has advocated a community-centered approach in addressing the high maternal and child death in the country by supporting communities to develop workable homegrown solutions which are acceptable and owned by them.

She noted that if women and girls have access to good quality health services, thousands of lives could be saved daily.

Speaking at the National Closeout and Dissemination Meeting of the Evidence for Action: MamaYe Programme after 12 years of implementation, Agbon stressed the need for governments to invest in better services for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

She noted that the dwindling national revenues often time cause governments to prioritize debt servicing and infrastructural development over Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH) service delivery and quality of care, adding that delays in release and cash backing of critical RMNCAH activities led to the unavailability of health commodities in facilities which in turn affected community demand.

Agbon stated that sustained availability of commodities and essential medicines in health facilities can be achieved by systematic and continuous use of evidence to address identified gaps.

According to her, a multi-stakeholder collaboration which includes governments, civil society organisations, private sector and communities, is essential for prioritising maternal and child health needs of communities and vulnerable groups.

The Country Lead who presented an overview of E4A-Mamaye, Programmes and Achievements, noted that through the project, there was increased budgetary allocation for health in eight states, as Bauchi was first to budget 16% to health in 2016.

She observed that the programme also supported 11 states including Lagos, Niger, Bauchi, Gombe, Ondo, Kaduna, Yobe, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa and Taraba to establish Accountability Mechanisms.

According to her, E4A-Mamaye works to ensure those in power are held to account for commitments to increase resources and improve the health, rights, and well-being of women and girls.

”We do this by supporting civil society, government, media, parliamentarians, and advocates at global, regional, and national levels to work together to translate complex health system evidence into easy-to-understand formats that are used to inform advocacy and action.”

Also speaking, the Regional Director West Africa and Central Africa, Options Consultancy Services, Dr Ufuoma Omo Obi stressed the need to build a localised resilient health system that prioritises equity, quality, and sustainability.

Obi noted that ownership mechanisms have been put in place while the state-led accountability mechanisms have been established by various states.

He said, ‘For me, it has been a whole learning curve around resilience, how communities are, the impact of the work that has been done, as you can imagine, the impact of the services that are being delivered and taken forward by community groups. We are proud to have played a role in nurturing grassroots coalitions and empowering stakeholders to drive positive change. As we move forward, let us remain steadfast in our dedication to building localized resilient health systems that prioritize equity, quality, and sustainability’.

On his part, Head of Knowledge Management at the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Obafemi Michael said that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted negatively on the nation’s health system and affected primary health care coverage.

Obafemi noted that the firm collaborated with the agency in carrying out a survey on the PHC financing with three states and stressed the need to increase the number of states in order to get more credible data.

He said, “Three states are not reflective enough as to how the sample size is supposed to be increased, so that we will now be able to have good data that has to do with health financing because you can’t use the 3-state sample size to analyse the PHC financing in Nigeria as a whole.”