Eleven years of writing health

This column advocates to policy makers, senior government officials, development partners and civil society organisations for a better health system and improved quality of care through use of evidence to influence decision making and planning. The last couple of years I have being privilege to attend many local, continental and international meetings all over the […]

This column advocates to policy makers, senior government officials, development partners and civil society organisations for a better health system and improved quality of care through use of evidence to influence decision making and planning. The last couple of years I have being privilege to attend many local, continental and international meetings all over the world which provided the chance to have access to strategic reports and decisions which had tremendously enriched what I usually publish here. It also positioned this column to take an opinion and recommend to policy direction through comparative analysis between Nigeria and other African countries.
Some of the positions are worth refreshing as we will still continue to raise them until we have witnessed a step taken by Nigeria to improve on them. We have reported on the London summit that was facilitated by UK Government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNFPA and many international donors and partners. It took place on 11th July 2012 and was aimed at mobilizing global policy, financing, commodity, and service delivery commitments to support the rights of an additional 120 million women and girls in the world’s poorest countries to use contraceptive information, services and supplies, without coercion or discrimination, by 2020.
The Nigeria government in that meeting announced a total financial commitment of US$33.4 million (N5.2104 billion) towards ensuring availability of reproductive health services and family planning commodities, over the next four years. Making the announcement during the London Summit on Family Planning co-hosted by the UK Government’s Department for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the then Minister of State for Health, Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, said Nigeria was fully committed to meeting unmet needs for reproductive health services and commodities, including family planning. Dr Pate who spoke at the global event on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan observed that “In addition to our current annual commitment of US$3 million for the procurement of reproductive health commodities.
Regrettably as I write this column today, Nigerian government has not fulfilled such commitment for the sake of Nigerian women and children. I will write in detail on this next week while reporting on the just concluded International Conference on Family Planning.
Another sad story is the fact that our President Goodluck has refused to assent to the national health care bill despite its being passed by the national assembly and continues advocacy by concerned development partners and civil societies. The passage will ensure the mobilisation of financial resources by allocating 2% of consolidated oil revenue to health sector. Also Nigeria has committed itself to the United Nations Secretary General’s Strategy on women And Children’s Health which affirms that the initiative is in full alignment to its existing country-led efforts through the National Health Plan and strategies targeted for implementation for the period 2010 to 2015.This commitment will require fully funding our health program at $31.63 per capita through increasing budgetary allocation to as much as 15% from an average of 5% by the Federal, States and Local Government Areas by 2015. And also allocating 2 % of the consolidated crude oil revenue to funding health sector.
We had also reported through the report on a Government Spending Watch Report tagged ‘Putting Progress at Risk? MDG Spending in developing countries’ released in May 2013 by Development Finance International and OXFAM that health spending has two clear sets of targets. In 2001, at a Special Summit on HIV/ AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Infectious Diseases held in Abuja, Nigeria, African Union Heads of State committed themselves to allocating a minimum of 15 per cent of government expenditure to health. At the global level, the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Macroeconomics and Health estimated that the cost of essential interventions to avoid preventable deaths was $30-40 per capita in 2004, on the basis of spending levels in low-income countries with good health outcomes.
Of the 32 African countries covered by GSW, only Malawi has succeeded (in 2011) in allocating more than 15 per cent of its spending to health. Ten countries (Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Djibouti, DRC, Lesotho, Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia) spend more than 10 per cent, and six (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Uganda) are close to 10 per cent. However, three (Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Senegal) only spend around 5 per cent – well below the Abuja target.
In conclusion I will refocus this year in making sustained and cogent suggestions and recommendations using strategic evidence that will enrich our discourses and positions. Lastly I sincerely thank the management of Daily Trust including its editors for allowing me to write on this page and pray for the paper’s sustainability, growth and development.
All comments to Dr Aminu Magashi at [email protected]