Bauchi Pledges To Sustain USAID Partnership For Healthcare Delivery

Bauchi State government has reassured the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other development partners working in the health sector of the administration’s unwavering commitment to sustain partnership with them in an effort towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UCH).

Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed represented by secretary to the state government (SGF), Ibrahim Mohammed Kashim, gave the assurance yesterday during the close-out ceremony of the USAID Integrated Health Programme (IHP).

He acknowledged the enormous benefit of the Integrated Health Project (IHP) to the people of the state over the last five years of implementation.

The governor said IHP has assisted significantly in strengthening health systems and improving the quality of healthcare for mainly women and children under five and appreciated the American government for its continued support to Bauchi State.

“I am certain that the USAID-sponsored Integrated Health Project has succeeded in improving the delivery of health services to the people of Bauchi State. This intervention covers Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, as well as Nutrition and Malaria. I am pleased to inform you that the Bauchi State Government is up to date in meeting its obligations to the MoU on which the USAID-IHP intervention was executed.

“As you may recall, when I first assumed office in May 2019 as the governor of Bauchi State, one of my first engagements was with all donor partners working within the state. This was an acknowledgement and appreciation of the support of our international partners in health service delivery and other areas.

I used the opportunity to commend their resilience and requested for continued collaboration with my administration as we unfold our plans for improving the health of our people.

“As a practical demonstration of the priority my administration has for the health and wellbeing of our citizens, from day one I commissioned a process of consultations with all stakeholders, including an executive retreat which I led to craft a strategic way forward for all MDAs, particularly the health sector. These processes of consultation on health culminated in the conduct of the first-ever State Health Summit in October 2022, during which stakeholders from within and outside the state deliberated at length on challenges and prospects for taking the health and well-being of our people to the next level.”

The state director, USAID-IHP, Bauchi, Dr Alhassan Siaka, said the USAID Integrated Health Programme began working in Bauchi in 2019 to reduce child and maternal mortality and increase the capacity of health systems to sustainably support quality primary healthcare services for reproductive health, family planning, maternal, newborn and child health, adolescent health, nutrition, and malaria.