UNICEF and Kaduna State Government have commenced the implementation of the Global Affairs Canada Initiative to improve the health and nutrition status of women, adolescents and children in the state.
The Health Specialist, UNICEF Abuja Office, Dr Fatima Cheshi disclosed this at the opening of a two-day state engagement meeting on Tuesday in Kaduna,
UNICEF had received a 15 million (Canadian) dollars grant from Global Affairs Canada, to improve maternal and child health in Kebbi, Kaduna and Bauchi States.
According to her, the five-year grant is aimed at enhancing government institutions’ and community systems’ capacities, to deliver sexual and reproductive health services.
She further stated that the funding was also targeted at improving the capacities of government institutions, both at state and local government levels, as well as community systems capacities, to deliver on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Cheshi added that the grant targeted adolescents’ population, women of child-bearing age and children under five in the three states.
“This support majorly targets the three states because they have high health indices across the adolescents’ health group, which is a neglected population when it comes to maternal health,” she said.
The health specialist also explained that the grant would also support training and capacity building for health workers.
It will also involve the procurement of commodities for maternal, newborn and child health, data collection as well as the implementation of interventions at facility and community levels.
According to her, the initiative seeks to address the neglect of adolescent health in maternal care, particularly in Northern Nigeria.
This is to ensure that adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health rights are attended to within the facilities and communities.
The health specialist said that the grant aligned with Nigeria’s Sector Wide Approach Programming (SWAP) focusing on improving maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes.
“Many young girls who are pregnant particularly in the Northern region of Nigeria are being denied the basic services that a woman who is pregnant should have.
“They are told that they do not belong to the group that should assess the health facility for these services.
“So, it it expected that this support will build the capacity of the health workers in the primary health care centres.
“It will make sure they are able to open their doors for services to adolescent girls, who have found themselves pregnant and have become early adults, too early as teenage mothers,”Cheshi said.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Dr Aisha Abubakar said Nigeria was often referred to as a “country of the young,” with 46 per cent of the population, aged less than 15 years.
She added that there were 40 million females within the reproductive age bracket of 15 to 49 years.
Abubakar stated that the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reported that 19 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 years were either pregnant or had already given birth at the time of the survey.
This, she said, made adolescent pregnancy a pertinent reality and a major public health issue, as it contributed to thebhigh rates of morbidity and mortality in both mothers and the newborn.
Abubakar lamented that early childbirth was often a direct result of child marriage, closely linked to early school drop-out, early sexual activity, high lifetime fertility and low contraceptive use.
“Adolescent girls from poor rural households face mobility restrictions, social isolation, limited income-generating opportunities and are less likely to transition to secondary school, compared to the boys.
“Our region of the country, the northwest and the neighboring northeast region, record poor sexual reproductive health, maternal neonatal child health and nutrition outcomes.
“They are also characterised by significant disparities across geographical and population groups,”she said.
Speaking further, the permanent secretary said Nigeria, which placed 130th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index for 2023, highlighted the ongoing gender inequalities.
She said Kaduna State recorded maternal mortality ratio that exceeded the national average at over 800 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to the national estimate of 512 deaths per 100,000 live births.
“Our adolescent pregnancy rate is the second highest in the country at 29.9 per cent, beyond the negative social impacts, such as school dropouts and poor future employment prospects,” she said.
Abubakar, said the state government was working tirelessly with partners through various measures such as large scale infrastructural upgrades, capacity building for health care workers on adolescent and youth friendly health services.
She added that the state had rolled out the Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) with UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Health support, to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
According to her, the initiative aims to standardise and improve the quality of sexual reproductive health, maternal, newborn, child health and nutrition services across the state.
She, then, commended the Canadian Government’s grant through the UNICEF, for maternal and child health, while also expressing gratitude to UNICEF’s technical assistance in healthcare delivery.
NAN
