MNCH seeks establishment of contributory health system

Maternal, Newborn and Child Health MNCH2, a five year UK department for International Development, DFID funded programme in Nigeria, has called on state governments to establish health contributory systems in order to meet the health needs of people living with disabilities, inmates, the poor, accident victims among others.

Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) Focal Person and State Team Leader of MNCH2, Dayyabu Mahmud Yusuf, disclosed this Thursday at a two day State-Led Accountability Mechanism workshop in Dutse, Jagawa
state.

The workshop was to deepen understanding of members of State-Led Accountability Mechanisms (SLAMs) on Basic Health Care Provision Fund, the roles and responsibilities of various gateways.

He said: “MNCH2 is working in six states of Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, Zamfara and Kaduna.  The mandate was to support states and local governments to improve health care services especially for women and children.

“It is expected that in every political ward of the country; there is
a functional primary health care services to ensure every pregnant woman and child under the ages of five; can walk in and access the quality health care services without paying a kobo. That is our desire and dream,” he said.

Presenting objectives of the workshop earlier, one of the resource
persons, and accountability and advocacy adviser, Hajiya Umma Moh’d Rakana, said the workshop was to sensitize the participants on how best to have better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, intervention packages and road maps.

Other objectives were to acquaint the participants on components of operational guidelines covering advocacy, anti-corruption and
transparency for BHCPF, benefit packages, exclusion criteria, resource mobilization as well as financial management.

The workshop drew forty participants from Yobe and Jigawa states.