The Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative (PHSAI), has sought an increase in funding of women’s health to meet the growing demands of Lagos’ population.
The demand was necessitated based on the key findings from the scorecard on the current state of women’s health funding initiatives conducted by PHSAI.
While acknowledging the efforts of the Lagos State Government in improving the health systems and sector in the state, PHSAI said the engagement with community members revealed a lot of gaps in accessing quality healthcare at the grassroots.
At a Roundtable Dialogue on the State of Women’s Health and Rights in Lagos, organized by PHSAI and supported by New Ventures Fund to discuss the key findings of the scorecard, the organization recommended the need to strengthen partnerships with donors, to improve women’s health outcomes in the state.
In his presentation, Abiodun Ajayi, the Executive Director, PHSAI, reiterated the need for increased collaboration, stressing that, “obviously, there has been an established partnership with international funders but there is a need to also increase all collaborations so that we can meet these growing numbers of women in the state.”
It was also recommended that “there is a need to enhance partnership, capacity building and advocacy efforts alongside, implement robust monitoring and evaluation system which will improve women’s health outcomes in the state.
“There is a need for cultural sensitization that is, engaging community and religious leaders to address cultural barriers. This is where the religious and traditional leaders come together to dialogue and proffer solutions.
“Empower women by investing in education and economic empowerment programs; Advocacy campaign by conducting evidence media advocacy to mobilize support for women’s health initiatives.”
According to Ajayi, the scorecard was developed to strengthen advocacy platforms, increase domestic funding, reinforce accountability, and amplify women’s health issues through evidence-based media advocacy.
While presenting the Women’s Health Advocacy Brief for Lagos State, Chairman of PHSAI, Barrister Ayo Adebusoye, called for the increment of the health budget to 15% following international best practices.
Speaking on the need to esquire access to quality healthcare services by vulnerable populations, Barr Adebusoye said that according to the National Health Insurance Act 2022 described that, every resident of Nigeria should be covered by a health insurance scheme and Lagos State Health Management Agency Law 2015 also say the same thing.
“So, we are saying very strongly that, it’s time to actualize the law which prescribed that 1% of Lagos state consolidated revenue fund go to the equity fund to cover women, children and other vulnerable populations in Lagos state.”
In her goodwill message, Lagos state Program Coordinator, Pathfinder International, Chichi Nkire said, “for Pathfinder, we hope to see a strengthened and better accountability framework for women’s health in Lagos state.”
Some of the participants at the roundtable meeting are, Director, Community Development, Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and Rural Development, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Adeniji; Chairman, Interfaith Public Health Advocacy Lagos (IPHAL), Dr. (Mrs) Ajoke Ashiru; Ward Health Committee (WHC) Chairperson Mosun Okunola PHC, Mrs. Abiodun Oroja-Giwa; Sub Chair, Advocacy Committee, Lagos Accountability Mechanism (LASAM), Mrs. Hassan Rasheedat; Ward Health Committee (WHC) Chairman, Eva Adelaja PHC, Hon. Kolawole Olusegun Sakiru; Center for Communication and Social Impact, (CCSI), Program Assistant, Dr. Itunu Dave-Agboola.