Boosting child and maternal health

It is laudable that the Federal Government recently renewed its resolve to checkmate child and maternal deaths in the country in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 target date.

Revealing this in Abuja at the National Summit on Maternal and Infant Care (NSOMIC), organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with US-based Healthline Foundation, the Minister of State for Health, Suleiman Bello, said that the care programmes will soon commence in seven states of the federation.

The benefiting states are Ebonyi, Taraba, Bayelsa, Kwara, Adamawa, Ogun and Zamfara. According to the minister, the states chosen for the maiden implementation of the maternal and infant care health plan have the poorest maternal and infant health indexes in the country.

Government’s optimism that it can achieve the MDGs by the target date is borne out of the fact that the country made some progress in reducing maternal and child mortality as shown by the 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). But, there is still need for more work to consolidate the gains.

Similarly, Bello elaborated that governments at the federal, state and local government levels are focusing more on the issues of women and children using implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), revitalization of Primary Health Care, provision of free health care services for pregnant women and children under five years as well as substantial increase in health budget.

Also, the Executive Director of Healthline Foundation, Dr. Uchenna Ibeh, said the NSOMIC was conceived to reinvigorate and assess the progress made to ensure equitable coverage of high impact maternal, newborn and child health interventions, to reduce maternal and infant deaths and focus on attendant challenges.
It is commendable that the Federal Government is leading this special intervention to boost child and maternal health in order to enhance our performance in MDGs. We believe the initiative, if well implemented, will tremendously improve our dismal health outlook. Over time, we have been placed in the league of countries with poor health records by global health organisations.

We urge the three tiers of government to make substantial contributions to ensure success of the initiative. Nigeria has an obligation to be among countries that are doing well in MDGs and other health goals. With our enormous human and material resources, the goals are achievable.
To achieve the maternal and infant health objectives, government should ensure systemic planning, good strategy, follow-ups and evaluations to put the programme firmly on course. To ensure sustainability, the people the programme is meant for must be involved. They must be part of the process.
This project must be given all the support it deserves because maternal and child deaths can cripple a nation. Any nation that cannot check such deaths will have a bleak future.

Government should learn from previous botched health interventions of this nature to avoid repeating past mistakes. For this initiative to succeed, it must also carry the people at the grassroots along.

Let government and the relevant organisations embark on elaborate enlightenment campaigns on both electronic and print media in English, Pidgin and indigenous languages. Also, local medium of information dissemination like town criers should be employed to reach the rural communities. Efforts should be made to ensure that the other remaining states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, also benefit from the programme.
Above all, the initiative should be tailored to make it acceptable to the intended beneficiaries concerned.

By Sun News Publishing
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/editorial/2011/feb/22/editorial-22-02-2011-001.htm