UNICEF commends Bauchi govt for implementing 1000 days integrated health services for pregnant women, children

Bauchi State Government has been commended for successfully implementing the 1000 days of integrated Healthcare services for pregnant women and under two children in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State and advised to make it a statewide program.

The commendation was made by the Country office of the United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF) when a Global UNICEF Office team, led by Ephrem Tekle, Associate Director, Immunization from the Headquarters, paid a courtesy call on the Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed at Government House, Bauchi expressing satisfaction with the positive impact of the programme.

Also on the UNICEF Global Office team for the visit were Phoebe Meyer, Consultant – Immunisation Flagships, HQ, Rushman Murtaza, Deputy Representative, Nigeria, Eduardo Celades, Chief Health & HIV/AIDS, Nigeria and Nemat Hajeeboy, Chief Nutrition, Nigeria.

While speaking during the visit, Ephrem Tekle noted that the integrated health intervention in Toro LGA has comprehensively addressed the needs of pregnant women from pregnancy up to the survival of a child under two years.

He said that “We are advocating for a continuation of one of your best practices that have been carried out in Toro LGA in collaboration with our UNICEF office here (in Bauchi State).”

According to him, “The practice addresses the needs of pregnant women from the day of pregnancy up to the need of children till they are two years old, altogether 1000 days. That is nine months of pregnancy and 730 days in the two years of the child.”

He stressed that “We know for a fact that implementation carried out this period will form the basis of survival and thriving of mother and child at health facilities.”

Ephrem Tekle added that “This has been done in Toro LGA. We have seen its success and we want to appeal to you to extend it to the other LGAs so that we put this state as one of the champions that already started it.”

“This is a testimony of your leadership. We like to spell it out on a global level and we want examples that are doing well and we are lucky to be guided by your officials and the UNICEF team here in our office who have done a wonderful job of implementing it”, he added.

“So we are taking this example forward globally but it will be good if you extend it to other LGAs in the state”, he appealed.

He said that the political will of the administration made the difference in the success in Toro stressing, “We are here to show our appreciation for a long-time partnership with the state government, which has been excellent,”.

Ephrem Tekle also praised the administration for paying over N109 million as its counterpart funds and the state government’s plan to disburse N160 million saying, “Our interventions require some commitment from government and you’re honouring them has brought trust,”.

He also recognized the enormous efforts of the state government in the area of human resources, especially in the employment of more than 1000 health workers.

The Associate Director, Immunization from the Headquarters expressed, “We really want to commend that and to really continue moving in that direction to ensure that the personnel are converted and deployed.”

He concluded that “We like to offer our continued support to expand your programmes and we believe that working at the community level is key.”

While responding, State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir said that he was delighted to welcome the UNICEF team to the state, saying that UNICEF, over the years had, made a tremendous impact on the lives of the people of the state, particularly women and children.

He pleaded for a stronger partnership aimed at the continuous promotion of economic growth and livelihood towards reducing poverty.

Bala Mohammed appreciated UNICEF’s support to the state to strengthen the health system to deliver integrated health services for children and women of reproductive age with a focus on health, education, water sanitation and hygiene as well as child protection.

The Governor also said that the partnership with UNICEF has improved maternal and child outcomes and provided needed infrastructures, standard equipment to ensure the nutrition of under-five children and free antenatal and hospital delivery among others in the health facilities among others.

He added that the administration was facing challenges in solving problems in the critical areas of health because 40 percent of the population is poor while undernourished children are put at a staggering 13 per cent.

The Governor however explained that the advent of COVID-19 has had ripple effects on healthcare delivery in the state saying measures were however taken to address them, thanking UNICEF for coming up with initiatives to support his Government to address some of these challenges.

According to the Governor, “We have made concerted efforts with our partners particularly UNICEF to improve the nutritional health of our people through the establishment of 21 community-based acute malnutrition centres in nine local government areas.”

He added that “We built four new general hospitals in Azare, Dambam, Warji and Duguri and renovated over 10 secondary health care facilities with housing facilities for the accommodations of health workers.”

The Governor stressed that “We renovated four PHCs and constructed 10 across the state in addition to 107 renovated through UNICEF and the European Union, EU. All in all, we are targeting functional PHCs in each of the 312 wards in the State among others.”

“We are working with the African Development Bank to provide human capital development solutions to some places like Azare Machema, Dagauda to breach the gap in human capital development for health”, he added.

He further said that “The state government has approved the recruitment of 100 medical doctors to man our facilities. We have also engaged 160 medical and para-medical students”

Bala Mohammed called for the support of UNICEF to retain medical personnel employed by the administration lamenting however that, “We trained many of them but they ran away. We have bonded them. If we build health facilities but there are no medical personnel then it is as if we have not done anything.”

According to him, “The human capital is a huge challenge because of our lean resources. We need your support in the area of retention, area of expertise, area of welfare and what have you to regain our doctors.”

He then assured that his administration will continue to partner with UNICEF and other international donor agencies in the area of Healthcare delivery services and education which he said are the priorities of his administration.

Earlier while introducing the UNICEF team, the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BSPHCDA), Dr Riwanu Mohammed, disclosed that the UNICEF team was happy with the success recorded in Toro LGA and was in Bauchi to understudy it with a view to replicating it in other countries in the world.

According to Rilwanu Mohammed, “They are also here to learn about our annual operation plan which we are dealing with in our PHCs,”.

He further said that “Recently we included the ministry of health in the health sector annual operation where every the Ministry of Budget and Planning tracks every activity and funds quarterly.”

The BASPHCDA EC added that “UNICEF has been carrying out activities in education, WASH, rural water supply, environmental protection agency and the ministry of health.”

He added that “We have an MoU partner with UNICEF, they used to give 300,000 US Dollars in our basket every year to support Bauchi state in the area of Healthcare delivery services and interventions.”

He said that UNICEF has supported Bauchi state in the initiation and development of quarterly PHC scorecards which the State has now taken ownership of.

He added that UNICEF is working to ensure that all children, regardless of gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background received their right to a quality of care in all communities.

Rilwanu Mohammed concluded that UNICEF is one of the U.N partner agencies that institutionalized the formation of volunteer community mobilizers known as VCMs with continuous support and utilization into PHC Services.

He added that UNICEF is supporting Bauchi state in the rolling out of Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) Programme, established by the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) implementation for improved Healthcare coverage at the community level.

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