By Daniel Tyokua
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the FCT Administration have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost health services.
Mission Director USAID/Nigeria, Anne Patterson during the signing ceremony, admitted that though the health status of the FCT population was fair when compared with other states of the federation especially with crisis in the North east, FCT has increase in the influx of people.
In a statement issued by Austine Elemue, Special Assistance on Media to the minister of state for FCT, said the Director explained that the population increase was putting stress on the available public infrastructure, especially primary healthcare facilities, which are ill-equipped and under-resourced to address the increased health needs of the residents.
“The purpose of the MOU is to support the revitalization of the FCT healthcare system to deliver quality, affordable, and sustainable preventive and primary healthcare services to the residents of FCT.
“With the signing of this MOU, USAID expects to apply global best practices and provide high-level technical expertise to assist the FCTA to meet their health improvement goals to operationalize their health plans and their reform strategies,” she said.
The MoU specified that the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) would serve as the baseline for overall health status improvement, while the 2023 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey would serve as the end line survey.
The MoU also acknowledges the Federal Government and FCT Department of Health and Human Services Secretariat policies, standards, and implementation guidelines for achieving health health systems strengthening especially Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) and Primary Health Care (PHC) systems and service delivery.
Minister of State for FCT, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, while signing on behalf of the FCT Administration, acknowledged the tremendous role of USAID/Nigeria, in the development of healthcare facilities in the Federal Capital Territory.
She said that the Administration would actively sustain and build on the cost-effective intervention of this partnership.
The minister recalled that USAID had recently supported the FCT Administration with a $20 million investment in family planning and reproductive health interventions, supporting facilities to improve service delivery, distributing contraceptive commodities, and increasing demand among local communities for these services and products.
Recall that the MoU shall cover a period of 5 years and as part of this effort, USAID plans to commit $45 million over the five years period for FCT through four existing health activities namely: the Integrated Health Programme, Breakthrough Action, Health Workforce Management, and the Global Health Supply Chain.
