By Hassan Zaggi
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in the health sector under the umbrella of Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC) have been charged to work hard towards ensuring that politicians put health on top of their agenda as they solicit for votes for the 2023 general election.
The Director of Nutrition and Senior Technical Assistant to the Minister of Health, Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu, who gave the advice at a 2-day retreat organised by the HSRC in Abuja on Tuesday, said this will enable the CSOs hold the next set of elected leaders at all levels accountable.
The retreat was supported by Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) and other partners.
According to Dr. Isokpunwu: “Since we are in the election period, I will request the coalition support effort to push for health priority in the agenda of the political parties.
“It is only when we are able to do that and get them to put in their agenda that one can be able to hold them accountable when they get into office.”
He also charged the CSOs to continue to advocate for increased funding for health across all levels of government
“It is true that the budget office of the federation has said that the federal ministry of health keeps returning funds and there is no basis for asking for more. But we know that there is a lot that need to be done with money in the health sector.
“The Basic Health Care Provision Fund ( BHCPF), the creation of the National Health Act promise to be a game changer in the health sector if there is increased funding.”
Another area the CSOs need to prioritize, according to him, is the primary health care system, noting that: “We all agree that it is first point of call for all Nigerians, but why is it that with all the funding and resources that we are committing to primary health care, the results are not changing?
“Maternal mortality is still high, under five mortality is still high and in fact, neonatal mortality refuses to move anywhere. Either it is stagnant or it continue to go up.
“We realise that the human resource for health in the primary health care system is poor, we also realise that the quality of services delivered in the primary health care is also poor. What can the coalition do to strengthen that system to deliver quality health services to Nigerians.
“Another agenda I like to also propose is preparing for the next pandemic. It is a matter of time and we will be faced with another pandemic. Is our health system able to stand and face the next pandemic? The Coalition can set agenda for government and also push government to continue to build infrastructure for such situation.”
The Senior Technical Adviser to the Minister, however, disclosed that the BHCPF has funds for Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to ensure that some funding gets to the states to promote the activities of the emergency operation centres.
The states, he noted, also need to provide their own counterpart to do that.
While commending the HSRC for its efforts in the passage of the National Health Act, Dr. Isokpunwu revealed that the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, remained committed to the full implementation of the Act and “as you can see, the tertiary hospital standard committee has already been inaugurated by minister and they have actually started working.”
He disclosed that since inception, the BHCPF has received 101 billion naira from the Federation Account and is now a statutory release since 2021 and that the releases are always 100 per cent.
“It is November now and we have received our releases up to October which account to about 83 per cent of the total funds that will be released this year.
“We have also made progress in the enrollment of the number of beneficiaries as well as in the disbursement of funds to over 7600 primary health care facilities across the country.
“While we may not regard the enrolment of beneficiaries or the disbursement of funds to health facilities as an achievement, we believe that there will be achievement when we begin to feel the impact of this funding and that is where the coalition comes in to ensure accountability of the funding at all levels, supporting the government to block all leakages and calling out those who are involved in the pilfering of resources.”
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the HSRC, Dr Idris Muhammed, said that the retreat was meant to address some pertinent issues including finalising the development of appropriate Charter for the Coalition and to develop a two-year coasted work plan for the Coalition “but more importantly to enable us develop a sustainable funding sources and path ways for the coalition which we believe is very key if the coalition must pursue its objectives.”
The retreat, according to him, was also aimed at developing an agenda for the coalition’ activities especially, in keeping with the Nigeria Health Sector Reform initiative.
On his part, the Executive Secretary (HERFON), Dr Celestine Okorie, noted that the retreat was an outcome of the two-day workshop that was earlier held to revitalize the HSRC in June 2022.
He applauded partners who have been supporting the Coalition for their consistency and urged them to continue.
He, therefore, called on participants at the retreat to work hard to meet the target of the retreat, which according to him, include finalizing of HSRC Charter including Criteria for membership and benefits of Membership; finalizing a two – three years’ work plan for the Coalition; determination of Sustainable sources funding for the Coalition and development of a definite health agenda for the Coalition for the next one year.
