By Ignatius Okorocha
The Federal Government declared Tuesday that the national maternal mortality rate of 512 deaths per 100,000 births, will be reduced within the next one year.
It further said government would tackle neo-natal mortality which at present, stands at 39 deaths per 1,000 live births, and under age-5 mortality rate of 132 deaths per 1000 live births, in the coming months, through improved quality health Care delivery.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, who disclose this on Tuesday while fielding questions from journalist after defending her Agency’s 2021 budgets estimates for SDGs before the Senate Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, said the required measures were being put in place.
She specifically declared that the SGDs office has already responded to the challenges with the construction of Mother and Child Centres and strategic partnerships across the country with the aim of promoting the health of the mothers and children, reducing maternal and child mortality and improving Nigeria’s health indices.
She said : “A very significant step towards tackling the problems associated with infants, neo-natal and maternal care was taken recently with the commissioning of a fully equipped, state of the art 100-Bed Mother and Child Care, MCC hospital in Ifon Community, Ose Local Government Area of Lagos State.
“The facilities are equipped to stop maternal, child deaths. The facilities are strategic interventions directly linked to the achievement of SDG-3 on ‘Quality Health and Well-being for all’ and other cross-cutting SDGs.
“These Mother and Child Centres (MCC) aim to address the high prevalence of maternal and child mortalities in Nigeria in line with the mandate of OSSAP-SDGs to implement or support policies and programmes aimed at fast-tracking the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.
“An example of this is the 100-Bed Mother and Child Centre we are commissioning today – built and donated to the Ondo State Government by the OSSAP-SDGs.
“It is therefore imperative that the State Government owns these strategic interventions and ensure their sustainability for the benefit of our people.
“As we continue to work together to achieve the transformative promise to ‘Leave no one behind’, I would like to call on corporate organizations, philanthropists and Foundations to continue to partner the government for this type of initiatives as part of their Corporate Social Responsibilities.
“We will continue to prioritise programmes and interventions with potential large-scale impact for achieving the SDGs in Nigeria “.
