The 36 State Governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Wednesday reiterated their commitment to building a resilient Primary Health Care System across the country.
The NGF Chairman, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State gave the assurance at the State House, Abuja, during the launch of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Leadership Challenge Fund.
“Today, we are pleased to restate our commitment to building a resilient primary health care system as evidence has shown that PHC has the potential to expand attainment of Universal Health Coverage to as much as 80% of the population.
“As part of our enduring partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates and Aliko Dangote Foundations, we convened a roundtable on 12th and 13th November 2019 in Seattle, USA, to reflect on the states’ government development agenda for immunization, PHC and human capital development.
“This culminated in the Seattle Declaration which restates the commitments of the NGF to strengthen leadership and accountability for the PHC system at the state level.
“Yesterday, the National Bureau of Statistics launched the MICS/NICS results and it is gratifying to note improvement in some of the health indices such as Immunization coverage which increased from 33% to 57%.
“However, we know that much still needs to be done to achieve desired results, especially in the areas of human resources for health, financing, and stewardship.
“The PHC Leadership Challenge aims to address these bottlenecks as it strives to build a resilient PHC system.
“On our part, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, representing the thirty-six states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has taken up the challenge. We have done it in the past with Polio eradication and are ready to do it again for PHC system strengthening, especially given our recent experience with the COVID-19 pandemic,” Governor Fayemi said.
In his remarks, the Country Director of Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation, Mr Jeremie Zoungrana commended all the 36 Governors for endorsing the Seattle Declaration with key commitments towards improving primary health care and agreed to include PHC as a standing agenda item in your monthly NGF meetings.
“To support these commitments, the PHC Leadership Challenge Fund was initiated to fill critical leadership gaps in primary health care systems development in Nigeria.
“These gaps have resulted in inefficiencies, underfunding, lack of prioritization and resulting in poor outcomes for women and children and communities.
“The PHC Challenge Fund represents a unique opportunity to motivate and publicly recognize ownership and leadership at the subnational level.
“The PHC health indicators will be tracked to support the NGF build Governor-level accountability, improve performance management, and enhance investments in critical areas of PHC.
“The Challenge Fund will also leverage other BMGF investments that focus on improving state-level data ownership, analysis, quality, and use.”
According to him, “under the Challenge, all 36 states are eligible for monetary grants awarded to one best performing and one most improved state within each of the country’s six geopolitical zones demonstrating the most progress against all indicators as per the agreed performance results framework as well as one state nationally displaying the most improved performance (total of 13 awards).
“The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is fully aligned with the Government of Nigeria’s determination to reform and revitalize PHC through the current effort by the Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agenda.
“We are encouraged by recent reports showing improvement in routine immunization, Skilled birth attendants, Nutrition, Malaria coverage indicators and declining cases of CVDPV2. This is encouraging and you all should be proud of this achievement.
“As the team continues to engage key stakeholders and the independent verification team to collect and verify the data that will be used for the awards, I would like to draw your attention to the MICS 2021 result released yesterday.
“These results while encouraging as they show improvement in key indicators, should also spur us to further action,” he said.
On his part, the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Archbishop Daniel Okoh tasked Governments with the vigorous pursuit of the initiative.
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Governors assure on building resilient primary healthcare system
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