Stakeholders in the health sector have again harped on the need for collaborative advocacy toward achieving sustainable progress in maternal health across Nigeria.
The call was made during a webinar organized by Pathfinder International in partnership with the Center for Communication and Social Impact (CCSI) to create awareness about the critical issues of maternal health.
The organizers, on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, assembled relevant participants and key stakeholders that are implementing the ongoing project on strengthening multi-level partnerships for advancing women’s health in Kano and Lagos States.
Speaking during the virtual event, Amina Aminu Dorayi, Country Director of Pathfinder International, emphasized the need to explore advocacy to hold stakeholders accountable for their commitment to improving maternal health outcomes.
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“We all know that maternal health is a cornerstone for public health and also improves outcomes to ensure that everyone has access to quality care to enable families and communities to live the lives they deserve.” Amina said.
Lamenting the high rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria despite several interventions, Dr. Amina said the webinar was part of measures to strengthen multi-state partnerships for advocating women’s health.
“We believe that collaboration among government agencies and healthcare providers is very crucial to the work that we do, and the community is also critical to achieving sustainable progress on maternal health.” She added.
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In her remarks, the Executive Director of the CCSI, Mrs. Babafunke Fagbemi, outlined the contributions of the center towards complementing the advocacy task, including strategic communication and media advocacy to inspire change.
Fagbemi noted that the project gives the CCSI the opportunity to shape the advocacy agenda through the SMART methodology to achieve the desired results.
“We are also delighted that the project encourages existing policies that support women’s health and, by the way, showcases these efforts in the spotlight, which poses an opportunity to improve maternal health in Nigeria,” she said.
One of the guest speakers, Dr. Folashade Oludara, Head of Family Health and Nutrition Directorate, Lagos State Ministry of Health, outlined some policy documents for maternal health in Lagos State.
According to her, they included six months of maternity leave for exclusive breastfeeding and free antenatal and postnatal care, among others.
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Dr. Oludara identified some challenges to maternal health in the state, including a growing population against overstretched facilities, staff apathy from multitasking, financial constraints, medical litigation, and poor documentation.
She opined that, if adopted, partner support, women’s enrollment in the health scheme, the use of volunteers, the updating of health worker skills, and the domestication of motherhood guidelines could bridge some of the aforesaid gaps.
Speaking from Kano’s perspective, Dr. Imam Wada Bello, Director of Public Health and Disease Control, Kano State Ministry of Health, said a lack of dedicated funding for maternal health was one of the factors responsible for the high maternal mortality rate in the state.
According to him, government reluctance to publicly share budget data was also a major challenge, therefore recommending community-based monitoring and planning, budget tracking and analysis, and maternal death audits as accountability mechanisms to yield the desired result.
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“Strategic advocacy is also a crucial means of improving maternal health. We also need increased resource allocation for maternal health programs and to ensure funds are utilized to improve outcomes,” Bello said.
Also delivering his paper, Salisu Yusuf, Public Relations Officer of the Kano State-Led Accountability Mechanism (KanSLAM), advocated for policy reforms for supportive maternal health policies.
Such reform, according to Salisu, would address the challenges of inadequate facilities and equipment, a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, and social-economic factors such as poverty, education, and cultural barriers.
He also noted that community engagement would build trust and collaboration with communities to improve maternal health, adding that there was a need to ensure sustainable funding for long-term financial support for the programs.