Nigeria government set to prioritize Health as Fundamental Human Right

The Nigerian government has reiterated its commitment to prioritized Health sector in the country as a Fundamental Human Rights and as a matter of national security with great investment for nation growth, development and sustainable prosperity.

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The special adviser to the President, Bola Tinubu on Health, Dr Salma Anas-Ibrahim made this known during the Joint WHO-Stakeholders Workshop on the Evaluation of the 3rd WHO-Nigeria Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) (2018-2022) And Development of the 4th WHO-Nigeria Country Cooperation Strategy Held in Abuja, Nigeria.

Dr Anas-Ibrahim noted that President Bola Tinubu’s Health Sector Agenda, tagged the “Healthcare: A Matter of Right and Urgency” has an Action Plan for a Better Nigeria based on ten (10) foundation pillars which has “Make basic healthcare, education and housing accessible for all” as a key deliverable for Nigerians.

The healthcare reforms policy agenda would align with the existing national health plan to improve the health fortunes of the people of Nigeria, through investment in the nine (9) following domains:

a. Governance and Leadership structure for the health sector which makes it more responsive and accountable with proper coordination and alignment mechanisms across the levels of care that has both political and institutional commitment.

b. Health financing through increased budgetary allocations to high-impact health interventions and National Health Insurance cover that can cover for at least 40% of the population in the first two (2) years of the administration that would be augmented with the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund and Vulnerable Group Fund.

c. Human Resource for Health development and job creation within the healthcare space especially for primary care services with incentives that includes performance-based remuneration and insurance cover.

d. Equitable, safe, quality delivery service that also covers vulnerable and marginalized population groups based on demand needs and demand-sided incentives which includes pro-poor community insurance cover.

e. Primary healthcare repositioning and strengthening to be the bedrock of the healthcare system having about 80% of the government’s investment in the health sector through adequate financing and infrastructure, appropriate services by skilled workforce, sensitive to needs of the people with established referral structure to secondary and tertiary care facilities.

f. Secondary and tertiary care facilities restructuring and repurposing to strengthen the referral systems to provide high skilled services that can reverse the ills of medical tourism with capital flight out of the country.

g. Preventive care service provisions which include vaccinations, NCDs screenings, (cancer, blood pressure, diabetes and mental health) and early disease detection to reduce the consequence of health burden to the people.

h. Public health emergency preparedness and response mechanisms based on the peculiarities of the country’s experiences and lessons learned with national epidemics and the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with organizations like WHO and others.

i. Increase partnership with the non-governmental organizations especially the private sector in the improvement of all the aspects of the health sector including research and development of pharmaceuticals, technologies by promotion of local content through innovation and domestic manufacturing”. She said.

The special adviser to the President said the whole perspective of the health sector agenda for this government is to position the system to be more responsive and accountable to the needs of the people that will positively contribute to the overall Strategic growth and development of citizens as the greatest asset of the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo explained that member states have just concluded the 76 worlds health assembly, which sets the pace for accelerating health to achieve the GPW 13 and SDGs target by 2030 and Nigeria, like the rest of the world, has experienced a setback in main health indices including maternal, neonatal and child health, requiring innovative ways of working to close the gap.

Dr Kazadi noted that the WHO in Nigeria has developed and successfully implemented 3 generations of the CCS. The current CCS which were originally developed in 2014, was reviewed in 2018 and extended to 2022 to respond to the SDGs, in line with the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the National Health Policy 2016, the National Strategic Health Development Plan II, the UN Sustainable Development Partnership Framework 2018-2022, the WHO Transformation Agenda, and the WHO’s 13″ Program of Work (GPW13).

“The development of the new CCS usually follows a robust consulting process. We are engaged with your good sell over the past few months, trying to understand what we have done right, the areas we have not done well and the pointers to the priorities in the coming five years. One key recurring challenge through the WHO is during this ongoing review is the need for WHO to be more innovative, energize to a stronger coordination role as a leading authority in health in support of the country and other stakeholders, in the next two days, this joint workshop will improve outcomes and provide guidance with more robust CCS and galvanize all of government will of society efforts to achieve SDGs in Nigeria”. He said.

The WHO Country Representative in Nigeria said the review is remarkable as it comes during the political transition in the country, which provides the potential for an inclusive policy dialogue and transformation window given the opportunity presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mahmuda Mamman, who was represented by the Director Planning, Research and Statistics FMoH, Dr. Ngozi Azodoh said the Federal Ministry of Health, leading the health sector, has started the process of reviewing the national strategic health development plan. “So, we have a revised document and it was done at that time, so that we’re ready for this administration to begin the process of developing an expanded National Strategic Development Plan three”. She said.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Mrs. Monilola Udoh said the workshop is key, as it provides opportunity to discuss progress made, on WHO’s/ SDG goals to bring an end to issues that affect women and children’s health and dignity like family planning, reproductive health, Gender Based Violence, maternal mortality and other harmful traditional practices, thereby chart a way forward towards improving the existing situation in Nigeria.

Mrs. Udoh explained that (WHO) statistics revealed that over 8,000 women die daily in Africa as a result of complications from childbirth, therefore, access to sexual and reproductive health including provision of quality healthcare is paramount to every woman and girl’s economic independence and healthy living.

“Every woman should have the rights and choice of when to have children, the spacing methods to adopt and the number of children she wants to have. In African culture, religious beliefs have affected many families; a woman’s choice/decision of when to have children and how many are often the husband’s decision. This is absolutely against women’s human rights”. She said.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs said the ministry as the national machinery for the advancement of women, children and other vulnerable groups rights will continue to support all actors to bring about workable policies and programs that will improve reproductive health rights among others.

“We shall continue to advocate against maternal mortality and child morbidity, other preventable disease like sickle cell anaemia among young people and for them to know their genotype status before marriage, sensitizing the public on the need to give girls aged 7-15 years HPV vaccination against the cervical cancer. We have in the past conducted free breast and cervical Cancer Screening exercise in two major hospitals; the National hospital Abuja and Federal Medical Center Jabi for women in the FCT. We are promoting better nutrition, creating awareness on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding and advocating for use of creche, safe spaces for breastfeeding mothers at work places and many more for the wellbeing of Nigerian women and children”. She added.

The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a medium-term strategic document that presents WHO’s vision for technical cooperation with a given member state, in support of the country’s national health policy, strategy, or plan. Introduced in the year 2000, its purpose is to co-create a strategic agenda which aligns WHO’s collaboration with other United Nations bodies and development partners at the country level based to identified needs.