The Politics of Change: Politics, Maternal Newborn and Child Mortality in Nigeria

Recent Policy Intervention and Achievements…Continued

Institutional rehabilitation: The Administration sought to improve technology, equipment and general infrastructure in healthcare delivery institutions to improve efficiency, accountability and access to contemporary data and practices; rehabilitate and refurbish all teaching hospitals through the implementation of the VAMED Engineering project to standardize equipment.  Under the scheme all Teaching Hospitals were targeted.
Construction of primary healthcare centres: Government constructed 200 Primary Health Care (PHC) centers of which 154 were fully stocked with medicines and handed over to communities to co-administer by health workers, local and state governments.  There were plans to construct 250 additional primary healthcare centers across the country to make access to services available to the poor.
Introduction of the Ward Health System: As a strategy of taking healthcare delivery to the remotest parts of the country, the Federal Ministry of Health introduced the Ward Health System to give added support to the Primary Health Care system.
Return of Nigerian professionals in the Diaspora: Through the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) and other avenues Government tried to encourage the training of nurses and doctors to service all national institutions; facilitate the return, where necessary, of medical and healthcare delivery professionals that had left the country for greener pastures; and improve the conditions of service to encourage creativity, innovation, commitment, service delivery and staff retention.
Inauguration of a National Health Insurance Scheme: The National Health Insurance Scheme, was launched beginning with civil servants with plans to make it truly national.
Local Production of Vaccines: The National Institute for Production of Vaccines and Biologicals was well-funded with the goal of producing at least 70 percent of essential drugs in Nigeria.

  1. National campaigns: The campaign against HIV/AIDS pandemic which is the most holistic and ambitious in Africa covering awareness, treatment and rehabilitation was intensified through the work of NACA and the Ministry of Health in collaboration with NGOs.  NACA was established in the Office of the President to show how seriously the government viewed the campaign.  The Oral Polio Vaccine campaign was reinvigorated.  The campaign for the total elimination of tuberculosis with the support of the Sasagawa Foundation, as well as campaigns against malaria and Guinea worm continued.
  1. Enhanced water projects: Investment in the provision of potable water through the “Water for All Water for Life” Presidential Initiative was pursued with great success by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the work of Chinese experts across the country.
  1. War against fake and sub-standard drugs/food products:  The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is on record as having waged an effective war against fake drugs and increasing public awareness on the needs for vigilance against adulterated products.   Its numerous activities have been acknowledged around the world and by ordinary Nigerians.

 

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