The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has said that the Primary Health Care Leadership Challenge Fund (PHCLCF) is an important mechanism to ensure that reforms take place at the subnational level in the Primary Health Care (PHC) system, where the actual health delivery happens.
Ms Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Country Representative for Nigeria, said this on Friday in Abuja, at the induction/orientation of the Independent Judging Panel (IJP), PHCLCF.
Munduate said that for this reason UNICEF is delighted to be part of this historic partnership to drive state ownership and implementation of key PHC policies, including the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, (BHCPF), PHC under one roof and The Seattle Declaration.
“We are optimistic that these efforts will go a long way in fast-tracking the Country’s progress towards achieving SDG3 targets,” she said.
Munduate said that this includes reinforcing equity considerations so children can survive, thrive and transform.
She said that PHC’s strengthening has become an urgent global concern because the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated preexisting weaknesses.
“Nigeria is not immune to this global crisis. With health expenditure less than five per cent of the total budget, high out-of-pocket expenditure by the population and slow progress towards under-five mortality reduction, the country needs to take urgent action to improve its PHCs, “ she said.
She expressed the hope that the governments at the National and Subnational levels have answered the call to action for the PHC system’s strengthening.
“The recent PHC summit and development of the PHC reimagining strategy are reassuring signals that the government is responding positively to the health sector challenge,” she said.
The Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Mr Asishana Okauru, said that the IJP would ensure that all commitments were met.
Okauru said that the judging panel has been given the responsibility to ensure that they identify states and governments that have met the commitments.
He added that there is a team of other technical people such as the Independent Verification Agency (IVA) helping to ensure that this happens.
“The idea is to strengthen the PHC to ensure that we achieve universal health coverage. The secretariat has a health desk, and we will be available to provide technical assistance to the panel,” he said.
Earlier, Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said that PHCLCF is an opportunity for the 36 states and the FCT to equitably compete within each of their six geopolitical zones for an annual best-performing and improving awards in PHC delivery.
Shuaib, who is chairing the steering committee meeting, said that PHCLCF would bring high-level recognition, pressure for improving BHCPF and a monetary reward, while also encouraging neighboring states to do better.
He disclosed that a national award would also be given to the performing state.
He said that the meeting would review updates on activities carried out since the official launch of the PHCLCF.
The NPHCDA boss said that the meeting would take necessary decisions that would ensure effective, efficient and successful implementation to achieve key program objectives.
“Today’s induction and orientation of the recently nominated members of the PHC IJP serve to unveil the roles and responsibilities as well as the performance evaluation framework to help the IJP to understand the project and deliver on their mandate,” he explained.
He said that he believed that the eminent personalities that make up the panel would bring to bare the desired benefits of the overall goal of the PHCLC.
The Seattle Declaration is aimed at improving the governance of the PHCs at a sub-national level by fully implementing the PHCs under-one-roof policy.
It would provide active leadership for PHC through regular engagement with relevant PHC stakeholders and quarterly PHC performance reviews at the State Executive Council meetings –
Promote a progressive increase in primary health care funding by ensuring efficient budgeting that is aligned to annual operational plans, promptly releasing approved budgets to the state PHCs board and PHC facilities.
This will ensure that there is a mechanism in place for Basic Health Care Provision, Fund implementation and oversight at the state and facility levels;
Recruit requisite health workforce to ensure that all primary health care facilities have the minimum staffing requirements appropriate for their level in line with the state’s minimum service package.”
Among others, it includes and institutes a culture of the use of evidence in decision-making by ensuring that the data quality across all PHC facilities was progressively improved.
This culminated in what is now known as the Seattle Declaration, which restates the commitments of the NGF to strengthen leadership and accountability for the primary healthcare system at the state level.
The steering committee is a multi-agency body led by the NGF through the HCH and co-chaired by Executive Director, NPHCDA, Director-General Nigeria Governors’ Forum, to provide strategic leadership and governance oversight for this project.
The country also utilized this same method during its campaign on polio eradication.
