“Enhancing Salience and Capacity of Legislators and Key Stakeholders in the Health Sector of Lagos State to Catalyse Nigeria’s Progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC)”

“Enhancing Salience and Capacity of Legislators and Key Stakeholders in the Health Sector of Lagos State to Catalyse Nigeria’s Progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC)”

Background

Nigeria’s health system outcomes and fast track progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). These policies and legal frameworks were designed to strengthen the country’s capacity to provide quality health care services to Nigerians. However, most of these are fraught with several forms of implementation challenges across all levels. For instance, The National Assembly passed Nigeria’s health sector is rich with several polices and legal frameworks designed to improve the National Health Act (NHACT) and was signed into law by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2014. The National Health Act encompasses various provisions relating to Nigeria’s health system including an innovative health care financing mechanism – the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) which was not appropriated for or implemented until 2018. Even then, the fund is yet to be fully implemented.

The Legislative Initiative for Sustainable Development (LISDEL) as part of its mission to improve delivery and expand coverage of quality healthcare to all Nigerians is implementing the Strengthening government partnership and advocacy for primary health care (SPAG) Project at the Federal level and in Lagos, Kaduna, and Gombe States. The eighteen months project is targeted at delivering on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child Health + Nutrition (RMNCAH + N) to optimize primary health care outcomes. The Project will build salience and leverage champions and platforms to institutionalize existing frameworks and policies like the BHCPF and Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) etc.

Implementation of these policies will be improved by strengthening partnerships with policy makers and key government stakeholders and facilitating targeted capacity building, establishing accountability mechanisms and strengthening advocacy efforts. This investment will also apply a gender lens to identify new voices within target government stakeholder groups and elevate those voices for PHC advocacy through existing platforms.

Objectives of the Program

To deepen understanding of the legislature on Health Financing, UHC and PHC objectives and policies.
To enhance the understanding of legislative functions and enhance the application of the functions to ensure the expansion of health financial risk protection mechanism to target populations.
To gather knowledge and use of information to implementable processes, tools, frameworks, strategic Legislative Health Agenda and work plan in the applications of legislative functions towards health care strengthening; and
To track progress on past commitments made by legislators to promote UHC and articulate plans to implement pending commitments.

The two-day program which consisted of in-person participation was held on the 7^th and 8^th of April 2022 at De Rembrandt Hotel Ikeja, Lagos with a total of 67 in-person participants. The forum consisted of facilitations on both days by Dr. Olanrewaju David Olayemi presentations, one panel and 2 group exercises.

COLLATED NEWS FROM OTHER SOURCES

Obasa advocates better funding for Nigeria’s health sector

Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has decried the poor funding of the health sector in Nigeria as a hindrance to the country’s attainment of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) target of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Obasa spoke recently at a 2-day health programme organised by the House in conjunction with the Legislative Advocacy Initiative For Sustainable Development (LISDEL) aimed at enhancing the capacities of legislators and key stakeholders in the health sector of Lagos state as part of moves to help Nigeria meet the universal health coverage.

Represented by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, Obasa said Nigeria is embattled with various challenges in the health sector, but that poor funding has become a major issue.

According to him, “The biggest challenge facing the health sector in Nigeria is lack of adequate financing. This is because none of the other problems is too obscure to identify or complicated to solve.

“To solve the problems of lack of adequate financing and thereby invest in the health sector and achieve the Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria, you, the stakeholders have come up with laudable innovative ideas like the Community-based Health Intervention Insurance.

“This initiative is largely addressing the issue of ‘out-of-pocket payments’ and would alleviate the struggles of our people in the rural areas.

“On this note, I salute the determination of the stakeholders in this sector for your efforts day and night to tackle these rather evasive but tormenting problems,” the Speaker’s representative said.

In his keynote address, the chairman of the committee on the health of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Akeem Olusola Sokunle, noted that the programme would help address the basics of ensuring universal health coverage policies and objectives.

He commended LISDEL for helping legislators, clerks of various Houses of Assembly and others with capacity building in relation to health financing.

“It is targeted at strengthening the state’s health sector and deepening legislators’ understanding of health financing, universal health coverage and public health coverage objectives,” Sokunle said about the programme.

He promised more partnerships with stakeholders to make the health sector of Lagos better.

Speaking concerning the programme, the chairman of the House Committee on Information, David Setonji, noted that even though Lagos still had a lot to grapple with, the state is doing well and taking the right steps to meet the WHO targets.

Vanguard News Nigeria

By By Ebunoluwa Sessou

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/04/obasa-advocates-better-funding-for-nigerias-health-sector/