The federal government has approved a $1bn facility to support the 36 states of the federation to tackle the challenge of child-maternal mortality in the country.
The government also said that the federal government is also upgrading 774 healthcare facilities across the country to make them referral points that can provide free treatment of emergency obstetric complications.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Ali Pate, stated this at the commencement of the Co-Creation Workshop on the Ogun State Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovation and Initiative (MAMII), held at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
Pate said that the $1 billion facility approved for states, was to be incentive for them to achieve results in scaling down child-maternal mortality in the country.
He said: “As further commitment to boost child-maternal health the coordination office also brings some resources from Hope, which is the $1 billion facility that was recently approved for all the 36 states to incentivize them to achieve results.
“Whether it’s on the governance side in terms of human resources at the primary health care, if you recruit, there are incentive payments, which will come to the state. At the same time if you achieve better Anti-Natal Coverage outcomes. There are also incentive payments. That is the incentive scheme”.
Pate said that the initiative called MAMII launched nationally last week by President Bola Tinubu was very important for the present as well as the future of the country, because it concerns taking care of the mothers and the newborn children who ultimately will grow to be responsible adults and contribute to country’s development.
The minister urged for strong collaboration between the federal and the state governments to tackle the challenge of child-maternal mortality in the country.
Pate also said that given the country’s diversity, the solutions as created by Abuja may not solve the problem in every other parts of the country, saying each state government must take into account their peculiarities while implementing various programmes targeted at reducing child-maternal mortality.
The minister added that other multi-sectoral determinants such as education of mothers, issues of nutrition, maternal anemia, efficient transportation as regarding availability of ambulances to transport the would be mother to the hospital during emergency must also be addressed to cut down on child-maternal mortality rate.
He said the initiative is multi-sectoral involving Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women Affairs and others adding that the issue of maternal child health, cannot be handled by the Ministry of Health alone.
Speaking at the event, Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, represented by his Deputy, Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, described the inauguration of MAMII as yet another demonstration of collective resolve to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes in the state.
Abiodun said that two local governments in the state, Ijebu NorthEast and Ado-Odo/Ota have been identified as having maternal mortality above the national average of 194/100,000 births.
He disclosed that the state government has always prioritized maternal and child health and would always support every initiative aimed at boosting qualitative healthcare delivery in the state
The governor said that his government has improved the budgetary allocation for health in the state to 13%, employed over 800 to boost manpower in the sector, provided 80 tricycles for emergency transport service in the rural areas among other interventions aimed at boosting qualitative healthcare delivery in the state.
As the implementation of MAMII kicked off in the state, Abiodun called on all stakeholders to leverage on innovation, collaboration, and data-driven strategies to drastically reduce and crash maternal and newborn mortality in Ogun State.
In her earlier speech, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, said the MAMII Co-creation workshop is a unique opportunity to engage, strategise and align efforts with evidence-based solutions that would significantly reduce maternal and newborn death.
Coker urged participants at the workshop to approach the discussion with an open mind, spirit of innovation and a commitment to actionable solutions that can help save lives of mothers and their newborns.
James Sowole
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