From Ifeoma Ejiofor
Civil Rights Concern(CRC) has commenced activities to promote improved maternal healthcare in Anambra State.
The Executive Director of CRC, Okey Onyeka revealed this in a Communique issued at the end of a stakeholders meeting held in Awka.
The effort according to Onyeka is in partnership with International Budget Partnership (IBP) and collaboration with JDPC Nnewi and the Anambra State Community Empowerment Network (COMEN).
He said that the intervention was to describe and define the activities in the other socio-economic sectors that are important to achieve the objectives of improved healthcare and especially maternal healthcare in the state.
The ED of CRC noted that the activities could be in the other sectors’ budget programmes or policies of the State or the federal government on health.
He said, “These policies provided for inter- sectoral collaborations to meet the primary objectives of health services.
“We are niching on the basic understanding that the level of health services in a health facility is not just about what the health sector could do but also about what the other sectors are doing to meet the needs of the health sector.
“It is equally about the fact that the health sector does not share responsibility for the level of services available in any health facility for which it is held accountable by citizens with anybody or groups.
“For health sector to deliver on its mandates for which it is accountable to citizens, the other sectors should discharge their responsibilities in a manner that will enable the health sector achieve its mandates.
“There is thus a need for strategic inputs and inter-sectoral collaboration to improve healthcare services. The health sector then has the responsibility to mobilize all stakeholders to achieve its mandates of improved health services.
The meeting was attended by the stakeholders in government, especially, the planning officers that oversee government budget making, nongovernmental organisations and community representatives.
The budget programmes of the MDAs were reviewed and areas of support for healthcare service delivery activities were identified.
The tool for monitoring to understand the level of services that the various stakeholders are able to contribute to health care services within each period or quarter were discussed, adopted, and shared.