…hosts high-level forum to examine health sector progress
By Hassan Zaggi & Stella Odueme
The Nigeria Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Forum has inaugurated three committees to actively mobilize funds, replicate best practices and put in place robust mechanism for quality healthcare delivery tracking in the country.
The committees include; Innovative Financing for Health; Facility Standard; and UHC Monitoring Group.
The group has also concluded arrangements to host a high-level forum christened the ‘State of the Compact’ to examine progress on the compact signed between the federal and state governments and donor agencies.
These were revealed at the UHC Day Commemoration Roundtable with the theme; “Health: It’s on the Government” held in Abuja, weekend.
The Chair of Nigeria UHC Forum, Chief (Mrs.) Moji Makanjuola who explained the roles of the committees said that the Forum will also compute a UHC service index for each state in the country.
She stressed that while some money is extremely necessary to advance the UNHC request, it is not sufficient to achieve the UHC dream unless it is coupled with a robust accountability mechanism.
“We must be intentional about mobilizing more money, like the ones that we hope will fall out from the tax reforms, from both traditional and innovative mechanisms to fully optionalize the Vulnerable Group Fund (VGF).
“We must therefore strive to enhance transparency by ensuring that relevant data on fund mobilization, fund allocation, number of beneficiaries and client satisfaction are widely available to promote the cause.
“On the part of the Nigeria UNHC Forum, we will continue to raise the accountability bar for health and advocate for putting health on the political front burner in order to move from rhetoric to action.
“The Nigeria UNHC Forum has inaugurated three committees to ensure we actively mobilize funds from innovative mechanisms, replicate best practices in terms of facility standards and put in place a robust mechanism for tracking
“The Nigeria UNHC Forum will compute a universal health coverage
service index for each state. A universal health coverage service index is a single composition parameter regarding the status of health service coverage. It is therefore an important tool for ranking the state of health across states,” she stated.
On the high-level forum, she said; “As Nigeria UNHC Forum is
officially recognized as a partner to the Federal Minister of Health and Social Welfare of the Nigeria Health Investment and Renewal Initiative Compact, we are making arrangements to host a high-level forum called the State of the Compact to examine progress on the compact signed between the federal and state governments and donor agencies.”
Speaking, the Director General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA),Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, insisted that his agency is working hard to ensure that more Nigerians are enrolled in health insurance so as to protect them from abject poverty, hence, attain UHC.
According to him: “More Nigerians must be brought into coverage.
Which means that the low numbers of coverage we have has to be a thing of the past.”
He, therefore, noted that the current socio-economic situation of the country has brought to the fore the need for governments at all levels to prioritize achievement of the UHC.
“There is no negotiation when it comes to the health of the people, because it is a healthy people that will make a healthy nation. In a situation where a large proportion, probably up to two-thirds of the country are living in poverty, it is obvious that even then, we face catastrophic poverty measurement of the cost of health care,” he noted.
On her part, Executive Director of Center for Contemplative and Inclusive Development, and 9th Chair of the Health, Safety and Contemplative Mechanism Network, Mrs Anu Oluowa, charge governments at all levels to ensure that their policies and programs work for the people.
“Now, as we celebrate this year UHC Day, it’s important for us to continue to advocate and admonish the government that it’s time for them to continue to ensure that all their policies and programs actually work for the people. Without health, there’s no wealth. Without health, there’s no economy. So, it’s only when you are able to invest and ensure that citizens have access to quality health care.”
