LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT REFUNDS 145 FORMER SUBSCRIBERS OF EGAN HOUSING ESTATE
admin Stakeholders in the health sector have reiterated the importance of collaborative advocacy towards achieving sustainable progress in maternal health across Nigeria.
The call was made during a webinar organised by Pathfinder International, in partnership with the Center for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI), to create awareness about the critical issues of maternal health.
Country Director of Pathfinder International, Amina Dorayi, emphasised the need to explore advocacy to hold stakeholders accountable for their commitment to improving maternal health outcomes.
She said: “We all know that maternal health is a cornerstone for public health, and it also improves outcomes to ensure that everyone has access to quality care to enable families and communities live the lives they deserve.”
Lamenting the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria despite several interventions, Dr. Amina said the webinar was part of measures to strengthen multi-state partnerships for advocating women’s health.
“We believe that collaboration among government agencies and healthcare providers is very crucial to the work that we do, and the community is also critical to achieving sustainable progress on maternal health,” she added.
Executive Director of the CCSI, Mrs. Babafunke Fagbemi, outlined the contributions of the center towards complementing the advocacy task, including strategic communication and media advocacy to inspire change.
Fagbemi noted that the project gives the CCSI the opportunity to shape the advocacy agenda through the SMART methodology to achieve the desired results.
“We are also delighted that the project encourages existing policies that support women’s health and, by the way, showcases these efforts in the spotlight, which poses an opportunity to improve maternal health in Nigeria,” she added.
Guest speaker and Head of Family Health and Nutrition Directorate in the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Folashade Oludara, outlined some policy documents for maternal health in the state.
According to her, they included six months maternity leave and free antenatal and postnatal care, among others.
Dr. Oludara identified some challenges to maternal health in the state, including a growing population against overstretched facilities, staff apathy from multitasking, financial constraints, medical litigation, and poor documentation.
She opined that if adopted, partner support, women’s enrollment in the health scheme, use of volunteers, updating of health worker skills, and the domestication of motherhood guidelines could bridge some of the aforesaid gaps.
Speaking from Kano State’s perspective, Dr. Imam Wada Bello, Director of Public Health and Disease Control, Kano State Ministry of Health, said a lack of dedicated funding for maternal health was one of the factors responsible for the high maternal mortality rate in the state.
According to him, government reluctance to publicly share budget data was also a major challenge, therefore recommending community-based monitoring and planning, budget tracking and analysis, and maternal death audits as accountability mechanisms to yield the desired result.
“Strategic advocacy is also a crucial means of improving maternal health. We also need increased resource allocation for maternal health programs and to ensure funds are utilised to improve outcomes,” Bello said.
Public Relations Officer of the Kano State-Led Accountability Mechanism (KanSLAM), Salisu Yusuf, advocated for policy reforms for supportive maternal health policies.
Such reforms, according to Salisu, would address the challenges of inadequate facilities and equipment, a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, and social-economic factors such as poverty, education, and cultural barriers.
He also noted that community engagement would build trust and collaboration with communities to improve maternal health, adding that there was a need to ensure sustainable funding for long-term financial support for the programs.
