The European Union, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have called for stronger domestic investment and sustained government commitment to consolidate gains recorded in maternal, newborn, adolescent and youth health services in Kwara State.
The call was made during an advocacy visit by a delegation of the European Union, UNICEF, UNFPA, the German Embassy and other partners to Kwara State, where the partners reviewed the progress and impact of interventions supported by the EU in the state.
Speaking during the visit, the Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation, Massimo Deluca, said the mission was aimed at taking stock of progress after about a year of implementation and assessing how the state was moving with the partners towards agreed targets.
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Deluca said the EU had selected Kwara as a pivotal state for its interventions, particularly in adolescent and maternal health, noting that the partnership was intended not merely as financial support but as an intervention whose results must be measured.
“We are here not only out of generosity, but we are here to measure results,” he said.
He said the EU was planning to expand its support while stressing the importance of understanding the level of investment and delivery by the Kwara State Government in the health sector.
“We would also like to understand how much Kwara is investing and delivering to the health sector,” Deluca said.
He stated that the EU’s contribution was intended to complement the state’s own efforts and emphasised the importance of maintaining close dialogue between the EU and the state government in tracking progress towards agreed targets.
UNICEF’s MNCH Manager, Martin Axel, commended the state for what he described as strong leadership, ownership and accountability in implementing the interventions.
Axel said the state had demonstrated commitment to the partnership and noted that the experience in Kwara was also encouraging other states implementing the programme.
He mentioned community midwifery as a major milestone and said UNICEF was complementing the approach with its safer birth bundle care initiative, which supports health facilities with capacity to manage preventable deaths among mothers and newborns.
He said the combined approach, covering community, primary, secondary and tertiary levels of care, was expected to contribute to improved outcomes for mothers, newborns, children and adolescents in the state.
The representative of UNFPA, Dr Koessan Kuawu, said the partnership between the UN agencies, the EU and Kwara State had produced tangible results despite the relatively short period of implementation.
Kuawu attributed the progress to the combination of government leadership and international partnership, saying the experience showed that development interventions could produce concrete results when supported by local ownership.
He cited the training of health workers, completion and equipping of 150 health facilities, and efforts to reach people in remote communities among the achievements recorded under the partnership.
He also commended the state government for providing domestic resources for the procurement of family planning and maternal health commodities.
According to him, the ultimate measure of the intervention would be the state’s ability to sustain, finance, institutionalise and take successful initiatives to scale.
“We want to reaffirm our commitment that we will be alongside the Kwara State to achieve this,” he said.
The Head of Cooperation at the German Embassy in Abuja, Dr Karim Jansen, said the delegation’s visit reflected a shared commitment to supporting Nigeria’s development priorities.
Jansen said the delegation would also participate in the commissioning of a solar mini-grid project, describing it as an example of how international cooperation could translate into benefits for communities, businesses and local development.
He explained that the delegation would visit health facilities and engage frontline health workers and communities to learn more about the progress and impact of EU-supported health interventions in Kwara.
Also speaking, Cluster Coordinator, Just Transition Inclusion, Jochen Rudolph, said renewable energy could contribute to the socioeconomic development of Kwara State, saying that the EU delegation was interested in learning about the state’s progress in the energy sector, including the role of photovoltaic systems and the potential for waste-to-energy and hydropower.
He stressed the connection between energy and healthcare, noting that reliable electricity was important to the effective functioning of health services.
Responding, the Kwara State Governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq represented by his Deputy, Mr Kayode Alabi, said the state valued its partnership with the European Union and welcomed the opportunity to assess how EU-supported investments were benefiting residents.
AbdulRazaq said the visit provided an opportunity to review progress, hear from those implementing and using the interventions, identify what was working and determine areas requiring improvement.
He specifically highlighted the EU-SARAH initiative and its support for strengthening maternal, newborn, adolescent and youth health services in the state.
According to him, improving health outcomes requires services that people can access, trust and use, alongside support for health workers, improved quality of care and greater attention to the needs of women, young people and communities.
The Governor also stressed the importance of sustainability, saying the state was committed to working with its partners to strengthen coordination, use evidence in decision-making and increase government contribution to services that had proved effective.
Earlier, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina El-Imam, said the state government’s approach was focused on strengthening the health system across the continuum of care.
She said the government was improving health infrastructure across the state’s 193 wards, strengthening primary and secondary healthcare and expanding tertiary healthcare.
According to her, Kwara State had moved from having no tertiary health institution to three tertiary health institutions within two years.
El-Imam said the state was also strengthening the links between community services, primary healthcare and referral facilities to address delays in accessing emergency medical care and reduce complications contributing to maternal morbidity and mortality.
She disclosed that the state government had released counterpart funding for the procurement of family planning commodities, describing the action as evidence of its commitment to commodity availability and continuity of services.
The commissioner also said the state was expanding adolescent- and youth-friendly services and strengthening providers’ capacity to deliver confidential and respectful care to young people.
She said the EU-UNICEF initiative, implemented jointly by UNICEF and UNFPA and funded by the European Union, had supported the state’s priorities through emphasis on service quality, workforce capacity, community engagement, system strengthening and the use of data for evidence-based decision-making.
El-Imam noted that a statewide assessment of emergency maternal and child health services had also helped identify gaps requiring attention.
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