Evidence as a tool for Health Accountability

Some evidence are very simple but could do the magic to make a politician have a rethink and take action. Have we considered quoting them on what they promise to do either in a conference, meetings or special events? Have we considered generating simple advocacy messages from a report they endorsed at an international meeting? […]

Some evidence are very simple but could do the magic to make a politician have a rethink and take action. Have we considered quoting them on what they promise to do either in a conference, meetings or special events?
Have we considered generating simple advocacy messages from a report they endorsed at an international meeting? These are powerful tools of engagement as they are capable of “shaming” a leader on a promise he gave and never intended to accomplish. Repeated reminders via many mechanisms such as print and electronic media as well as social media and email letters could make a leader sit up. Imagine getting a quotation of what Nigeria’s Health Minister said in an international meeting and using it to generate debate on Facebook and Twitter, for example,  getting one million petitions. It will be damning and make him move to action.
It is against this backdrop that I will make reference to meetings of the African Union and World Health Assembly that all took place recently, and our health minister and his team were in attendance. It is important we remind them of the reports they endorsed and promised to implement.
From 14th – 17th April 2014, the African Union Ministers of Health including Nigeria were at Luanda, Angola strategizing and committing to ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths. The communique released at the end of the meeting highlighted that the African Ministers of Health meeting was the first Joint African Union (AU) / WHO Conference of Ministers of Health and they all committed  to ending preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths.
During this meeting, Ministers, debating on African health priorities described the preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths on the continent as a continental catastrophe. While Africa accounts for 10% of the global population, it bears a disproportionate burden of mortality and ill health, including approximately half of global maternal and child deaths.
The meeting called for better regional exchange of best practices with a view to finding African solutions for African health problems. There was also a call for more leadership and accountability from ministers of health and their governments.
To end maternal, newborn, child and adolescent mortality, the ministers commited to:
1.      Ensuring that health of women and children in Africa is guaranteed through the full implementation of policie, strategies and initiatives that promote elimination of preventable maternal , newborn and child deaths
2.      Ensuring access to essential package of maternal, newborn and child health interventions, including nutrition interventions, particularly for vulnerable populations
3.      Scaling up investments in human resources for health, particularly in the training, deployment and retention of staff for better provision of quality RMNCH services
4.      Removing financial barriers with a view to achieving universal access to health and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child services
5.      Work with other ministries to develop multi-sectoral coordination mechanism to oversee investments in the critical social, behavioral economic and environmental determinants of health, in particular girls’ education , gender equality women’s empowerment and male participation towards ending preventable maternal , newborn and child deaths
6.      Strengthening tracking and monitoring systems and disease surveillance and response, especially maternal and neonatal death audits, surveillance and timely response as well as strengthening civil registration and vital statistics
7.      Work with civil society organizations to strengthen the role of communities in facilitating access to services and in accountability.
8.      Ministers also commit to being held accountable for the decisions made during this joint meeting through the specification of timelines to commitments and regular reports by the AU and WHO.
With these 8 commitments, we have simple evidence to engage our leaders and remind them of what they said and endorsed and participated.
In Geneva during the 67th World Health Assembly on 24th May 2014,  the Every Newborn Action Plan was endorsed by the 194 member-states of the World Health Assembly, paving way for national implementation and monitoring of key strategic actions to improve the health and well-being of newborns and their mothers around the world.
 The assembly has recognized the need to intensify action urgently in order to end preventable neonatal deaths and preventable stillbirths. It endorses the newborn health action plan and urges member states to put into practice the newborn health action plan, through steps that include:
 1.      Reviewing, revising and strengthening their national strategies, policies, plans and guidelines for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health in line with the goal, targets and indicators defined in the newborn health: action plan, and strongly committing to their implementation with particular focus on high-risk groups;
2.      Committing themselves, according to their capacities, to allocating adequate human and financial resources to improve the access and the quality of care, particularly care for the mother and the newborn during labour, around birth and the first week, and achieve the national newborn health targets in line with the global action plan;
3.      Strengthening health information systems so as to better monitor quality of care and to track progress towards ending preventable maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths;
4.      Sharing information on lessons learnt, progress made, remaining challenges and updated actions to reach the national newborn and maternal health targets;
We have simple evidence that we can turn into simple advocacy messages to reach the door steps of our political leaders.
All comments to Dr Aminu Magashi at [email protected]