The Bayelsa State Government on Thursday signed a three-year rolling work plan with the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to enhance health and nutrition services in the state.
The work plan, which also covered advancing child protection systems, improving social policy, as well as social protection mechanisms, is expected to run from 2025 to 2027.
Speaking shortly after signing the partnership agreement on behalf of the state government in Yenagoa, Bayelsa Deputy Governor, Mr Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, disclosed that efforts were underway to pass the state’s Health Bill into law to address critical challenges affecting its healthcare delivery.
According to him, the law when operational, will enable Bayelsa to meet most requirements of UNICEF, including allocation of one per cent of its Annual Budget to primary healthcare.
The deputy governor commended UNICEF for developing the work plan, saying it would serve as a veritable framework for effective evaluation of success and challenges of the agency’s programmes in the health sector in Bayelsa.
Underscoring the importance of human resources in the healthcare delivery system, he said government would retain a significant number of the health workers co-opted into the GAVI Project which had ended.
Ewhrudjakpo, who said the government was taking steps to review its nutrition policy, assured UNICEF of the present administration’s commitment toward addressing issues of child protection.
He said the state is expanding the Bayelsa Health Insurance Scheme to cover community health insurance, and remove cultural inhibitions to health and nutritional services.
“On behalf of Gov. Douye Diri, I want to express our most profound gratitude and appreciation to the UNICEF for this project in the state, South South and the country. We are not taking it for granted that Bayelsa is chosen for this purpose.
“Over the years, UNICEF and other partners have been giving us a shot in the arm to stretch our capacity to reach our rural areas.
“UNICEF has always concentrated in the areas of child survival, and quality of life. They have always emphasised education, health, nutrition, social protection and policy review over the years,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the UNICEF Port Harcourt Chief of Field Office, Dr Anslem Audu, said the multi-year work plan represented a collective resolve to advance the rights and well being of children, women in Bayelsa, through strategic investments in health, nutrition, child protection and social policy initiatives.
He thanked Diri for his dedication to the welfare and survival of children in the state, pointing out that Bayelsa is the only state in the South South privileged to sign the work plan.
In his opening remarks, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Seiyefa Brisibe, noted that signing of the work plan marked a significant milestone in government partnership with UNICEF.
Brisibe expressed gratitude to UNICEF for the technical and funding support it provided with other international partners and donors such as GAVI, which had strengthened the health system in Bayelsa.
NAN
