Health
Traditional ruler urges FG to increase budget allocation for health, education
Traditional ruler urges FG to increase budget allocation for health, education
The Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe, has urged the Federal Government to increase the budget allocation to health and education .
Achebe made the call on Tuesday in Abuja, at the first Bi-Annual Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child Adolescent and Elderly Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) multi-stakeholder partnership coordination platform.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the RMNCAEH+N, which was launched in October 2020, is a multi-stakeholder partnership coordination platform which would harmonise the health interventions of the government and health partners to reduce wastage and channel funds to get the desired result to achieve Universal Health Care Coverage.
The platform brings together a wider cross-sector of partners and traditional leaders to address the gaps in achieving effective overall coordination of RMNCAEH+N issues by harnessing the relative strengths of individual players to leverage resources, reduce duplication and induce speed towards maximized health outcomes.
Represented by the Emir of Shonga, Dr Haliru Yahaya, Achebe said it was wrong that the National Assembly commands a higher budget than education and health sectors.
“The programme must flow down to the states and Local Government Areas for implementation synergy, cooperation and Partnership,” he said.
Implementation of the RMNCAEH+N, he said, is key to success.
“There must be a sense of urgency; the human capital document took four years to develop and the set targets cannot now be achieved within the set time frame due to delays.
“Funding is also very critical for success,” he added.
Contributing, the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III, urged the federal government and its partners to remain committed to improving the health and well-being of Nigerians, especially vulnerable populations.
The Sultan, who was represented by the Chairman of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care Delivery (NTLC), and Emir of Argungu, Alhaji Samaila Mera pledged the continuous support of Traditional and Religious leaders towards the achievement of UHC in the country.
Earlier, the Minister of State, Health, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora said that as part of the RMNCAEH+N commitments, the government was working to ensure the availability of family planning commodities and services, by launching the FP2030 commitment.
Mamora, who was represented by the Director of Family Health Department, FMOH, Dr Salma Kolo, said the commitment is aimed at increasing domestic funding and sustainable financing through earmarking of one per cent health budgets, at federal and state levels.
“We are optimistic that Nigeria will attain its vision with a strategy that allows eligible citizens, including adolescents, young people, and vulnerable populations, to make informed choices and get equitable, affordable access to quality FP and participation in national development.
“This is the goal of the FP2030 commitment,” he explained.
Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Country Representative, assured Nigeria of WHO’s continual support meets the target of UHC.
Mulombo, who was represented by Dr Martin Chabi, Medical Officer, Maternal and Child Health UHC, Life Course Chaster, WHO said that the meeting was a great opportunity to improve the health of women, children and adolescents via transformative multi-sectoral action.
According to him, this will also accelerate coverage of interventions, reduce gender and equity gaps, and improve the quality of services.
Speaking, Prof Emmanuel Lufadeju, National Coordinator of Rotary Maternal and Child Health Project in Nigeria, said that the organisation is supporting the ministry on RMNCAEH+N.
Lufadeju said that RMNCAEH+N was a coordinating platform for stakeholders to have coordination and concentration activities and efforts so that there were no repetitions in its activities.
“So far, through the Department of Family Health, ministry of health, coordination has been very effective in terms of data collection, advocacy, technical support, and it is still growing.
”This is to review what has been achieved so far in the last two years, what we have to do differently and how we can move forward.
“Rotary is a major supporter of the FMOH, especially the Department of Family Health, on issues of maternal and child health in Nigeria.
“We expect to increase contraceptive prevalence rate from the present 15 per cent to above 30 per cent in the next five years,” he explained.
He said that the organisation expects of the organisation to drastically reduce maternal mortality in the country.
“ Maternal mortality, which is at the moment 512 women dying out of 100,000 live births. We have been doing a lot of work in terms of advocacy, and capacity building in the country in terms of supply of equipment and facilities,” he added.
NAN reports that this is the fourth meeting since the launch of the platform, was structured for a critical performance appraisal, to articulate lessons learnt, identify challenges, and define its focus for the next six months.
The meeting addressed thematic areas that support progress toward reducing mortality indices in the RMNCEAH+N programme.
Traditional ruler urges FG to increase budget allocation for health, education
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
By: Michael Mike
The Nigeria Security and Civil. Defence Corps have continued to strengthen collaborations with one of the best HMOs in Nigeria, the United Healthcare International Ltd., this is in a bid to improve the well being of the serving officers and some host communities and also improve on grassroot security techniques and effective information gathering to forestall criminality.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a medical outreach organised by the NSCDC Commandant General, Dr Ahmed Audi, said the partnership with the United Healthcare International has positively impacted the Corps hence in order to give back to the communities and further foster and improve on the existing synergy between NSCDC and host communities, the Medical Health Service Department of the NSCDC organized the medical outreach programme to promote effective collaborations.
Delivering a goodwill message while representing the CG at the opening ceremony, ACG Ilelaboye Oyejide reiterated the commitment of the Corps to enhancing the health and well being of not only officers and men of the Corps but also the host
communities.
“In carrying out our statutory mandates, it requires the supports of the host communities for positive results and this is why the NSCDC is concerned about the state of health and wellness of the people.
“As an agency with the roles and responsibility of Disaster mitigation we belief that the free medical outreach organized for the people will go a long way to further cement the existing working relationship of the Corps and the entire community”.
The NSCDC Boss hinted that the Medical outreach would be carried out in various communities as time unfolds he noted that the Corps medical officers alongside the United Healthcare HMOs would be at Laminga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State for the first phase in the year.
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
By: Michael Mike
The Korean Embassy in Nigeria has commenced the Korean Film Festival in Nigeria after it went on break during the CIVID-19 pandemic.
The latest edition is the 12th Edition of the festival and was hosted at the Silverbird Cinema, in Abuja between 19th September to 21st September 2024 with several movies screened.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Korean ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pankyu, expressed delight with the return of the festival after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said: “I have come to deeply feel that South Korea and Nigeria share a strong cultural affinity, especially in their love for music and dance.
“Due to this cultural affinity, various elements, such as fashion and cuisine, along with music, are resonating in Nigeria.
“Particularly, there has been a significant surge in the spread of dramas and films.”
He added that: “Along with the global hit ‘Squid Game’ in 2021, the most-watched drama series on Netflix Nigeria in 2022 was ‘Alchemy of souls’.
“Thus, I have come to realise the importance of introducing Korean films to Nigeria, one of the world’s top 3 film-producing countries.”
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr Obi Asika, said millions of Nigerians had fallen in love with K-pop [Korean music] and K-drama [Korean drama].
He said Nigeria would continue to learn from the Koreans to improve its entertainment industry.
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
By: Michael Mike
Growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance health and critical HIV services, a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
The report said domestic revenues, debt relief and development aid: Transformative pathways for ending AIDS by 2030 Eastern and Southern Africa/ Western and Central Africa, shows that the debt crisis is putting in jeopardy progress made towards ending AIDS.
It added that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV, with more than 25.9 million people of the 39.9 million living with HIV globally. The region’s success in having reduced new HIV infections by 56% since 2010 will not be sustained if fiscal space is constrained.
The report, released ahead of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, showed that the combination of growing public debt payments and spending cuts set out in International Monetary Fund agreements in the next three to five years will, if unaddressed, leave countries dangerously under resourced to fund their HIV responses.
The UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “When countries cannot effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt payments, global health security is put at risk,” adding that: “Public debt needs to be urgently reduced and domestic resource mobilization strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the global HIV response and end AIDS.”
The report said debt servicing now exceeds 50% of government revenues in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, adding that even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still be paying two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.
It said there has been a noted decline in HIV response spending since 2017 in Western and Central Africa, from 0.3% of GDP in 2017 to just 0.12% in 2022.
It said Western and Central Africa will need to mobilize US$ 4.18 billion to fully fund the HIV response in 2024. This will climb to US$ 7.9 billion by 2030 unless efforts are scaled up today to stop new HIV infections.
While US$ 20.8 billion was available for the HIV response in 2022 in low and middle-income countries through both domestic and international sources, this funding was not enough to sufficiently finance the HIV response. Western and Central Africa for example had a funding shortfall of 32% in 2022.
In 2024 alone, Eastern and Southern Africa will need to mobilize almost US$ 12 billion to fully fund the HIV response. This amount will climb to around US$ 17 billion by 2030 unless new HIV infections are reduced.
It said to enable increased domestic resource mobilization for countries to respond effectively to their pandemics, sub-Saharan African countries will need to strengthen their tax systems, including closing tax exemptions which currently cost countries an average of 2.6% of GDP in lost revenue across the region. Donors need also to scale up financial assistance for health and the HIV response between now and 2030, while creditors should offer debt relief to heavily indebted countries to ease the burden.
Byanyima said: “World leaders cannot let a resource crunch derail global progress to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
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