Federal Govt Reiterates Commitment To Women, Children’s Wellbeing

Federal government has reiterated its resolve to improve the health and wellbeing of women, the adolescents and children in Nigeria.

The minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, stated this at the Newborn, Child, Adolescent and Elderly Healthplus Nutrition (RMNCAEH+N) multi-stakeholder partnership coordination platform meeting in Abuja.

He said, “The health of mother and child is a strategic measure of national development and remains topical in global developmental priorities. We in Nigeria began the journey to improve activities around RMNCAEH+N, with streamlined strategies to accelerate the improvement of health and wellbeing of women, adolescents, and children, almost two years ago.”

Ehanire identified the modest progress made since we launched this platform in October 2020, as development of an Annual Operational Plan at about 90 per cent completion, strengthened partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health parastatals, including the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).

He said as part of RMNCAEH+N commitments, the federal government was working to ensure availability of family planning commodities and services, by launching the FP2030 commitment, aiming to increase domestic funding and sustainable financing through earmarking of 1 per cent health budgets, at federal and state levels.

The national coordinator, Rotary Maternal and Child health in Nigeria, Professor Emmanuel Adedolapo, said the organisation was supporting the Federal Ministry of Health, adding that RMNCAEH+N is on a centrally coordinating platform for stakeholders to have coordination activities  so that there are no repetitions in the activities.

He said, so far, through the Department of Family Health of the Federal Ministry of Health, the coordination has been very effective in terms of data collection, advocacy and technical support.