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Primary Health Care: GAVI supports Nigeria with $50m
The Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), a public-private health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries, says it will support eight states in Nigeria with $50 million.
The Chief of Health, United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Mr Eduardo Celades, an organisation partnering with GAVI, said this in Abuja on Monday at the second bi-annual review health system in the country.
He said that the funds would be provided to states to improve their primary healthcare system.
The benefitting states are Zamfara, Kebbi, Katsina, Jigawa, Gombe, Taraba, Niger and Bayelsa.
“We are working to support eight states by strengthening them for the next three years. The support is about 50 million dollars to lift up the states in their health system.
“We will also support these states with human resources, data, governance and supply chain, we expected that in the next three years, the states will have a robust sound health system to care for children and women.
“We are impressed about the health implementation support we have been giving to these states so far, we believe that their performance is good, and we are going to see the difference in the next couple of days,” he said.
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Celades said about 1000 human resources had been hired over the last six months and a lot of procurement had been done to assist these states in strengthening their health system.
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He disclosed that more than 14 vehicles and 70 motorbikes would be delivered to these selected states, adding that just only six months after the support kick-started in 2019, the states were already having impacts.
According to him, the main challenge remained the capacity of the states to absorb and utilise the strength to get results, and that there were a lot of investments that needed to be used wisely.
He encouraged the states to focus on what was important to deliver services for women and children, especially in Bayelsa and Niger where floods mostly affected.
He said that health workers in the two states needed to work together to overcome the challenges and deliver services to women and children, adding that what was expected from the states was their commitment.
Mr Ibrahim Mohammed, Senior Manager, GAVI Health System Strengthening, said there had been a healthy utilisation of the funds that were made available to the states earlier.
He said that GAVI had been so much encouraged by the partnership from the states despite the pandemic that befell the country when the support was still at its earlier stage.
Dr Abu Dahiru, Commissioner for Health, Gombe, said the state was fully participating in the GAVI programme, saying that it was an intervention that came timely to the state, considering the huge number of unimmunised children.
He said that the state government had a sustainable plan for Primary Health Care (PHC), adding that with the support of the governor, the health sector in the state was beginning to have a new look.
