Bukola Afeni
The Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC) has urged Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to join forces in tackling the challenges confronting the country’s healthcare sector.
The group stated this at the Annual General Meeting Policy Dialogue 2.0 meeting in Abuja.
The Chairman of HERFON/HSRC, Idris Muhammad said, lack of adequate resources in the health sector has led many professional health practitioners to leave the country.
According to the chairman, the health organization, is making effort to ensure that Nigeria health system adopt the best practice to have a robust health system.
He said, “We are trying to adopt the best practices that are out there that we think should be used in Nigeria, so that we can have a resilient health sector.
To be able to do this as CSOs we do not have that image on our own but more of advocacy”, he added.
Muhammad also emphasized on the need to create well informed information to change the narrative by engaging experts at the sub national levels, State governors, commissioner of health and staff at the Local Government level.
“We need rigorous advocacy at state and national level.We want to engage with the Minister of health to express our shortcomings in the health sector and discuss possible solutions that will improve the sector “, he said.
Save the Children, Advocacy Campaign and Policy Manager, Ifedilichukwu Ekene Innocent said the Civil Society organisation is developing plan to ensure effective distribution and utilization of resources in the health sector.
“We are pushing to improve funding for health sector, not only increasing it in terms of numbers, but also in efficient utilisation of resources.
President Bola Tinubu should ensure that every women irrespective of their location have access to good health care system”.
He disclosed that the coalition has put in place an accountability mechanism to track funding and ensure that government is accountable in administration of funds.
“As Civil Society organisation, the most important thing is that we are organising ourselves, and understanding the issues in the health sector. We are also taking laudable actions that will improve the sector”, he said.
The CEO of Vaccine Network, Chika Offor urged government to prioritize immunization among women and children.
“It is very important that immunization is put at the forefront in the health sector. Immunization is preventive in nature. As a coalition we are ensuring that the country has enough money to cater for its immunization needs across all spheres”, she said.
In the same vein, she noted that the coalition is working collaboratively to develop the health system in Nigeria .
