The World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to accelerate effort towards building a resilient and sustainable health care system in the country.
The call was made on Monday at the commencement of a four-day meeting of the 63rd Regular National Council on Health (NCH) taking place in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital from December 5 to December 9, 2022.
This is in line with the aim of improving health outcomes in Nigeria and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
In a welcome address by Dr Mie Okamura, the Officer in Charge, WHO Nigeria, the meeting affords the Nigerian government and relevant stakeholders to build on the deliberations of the last Special National Council on Health which focused on applying lessons from COVID-19 in building resilient health systems towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The deliberation focuses on the 6 pillars of health systems including primary healthcare, climate change, strengthening local manufacture of vaccines and biologicals, big data and digital health, health insurance, and building essential partnerships.
While striving towards a formidable health care delivery the agency calls on the government prioritise its programs on five (5) key areas which was presented to member states by the WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu at the 150th Session of the WHO Executive Board on 24 January 2022.
The key areas according to WHO is the 13th General Program of Work (GPW13) up to the year 2025 during the 75th World Health Assembly.
These priorities include supporting countries to “(a) make an urgent paradigm shift towards promoting health and well-being and preventing disease by addressing its root causes; (b) have a radical reorientation of health systems towards primary health care, as the foundation of universal health coverage; (c). urgently strengthen the systems and tools for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response at all levels, underpinned by strong governance and financing to ignite and sustain those efforts, connected and coordinated globally by WHO; (d) harness the power of science, research
innovation, data and digital technologies as critical enablers of the other priorities; and (e) urgently strengthen WHO as the leading and directing authority on global health, at the center of the global health architecture.”
The agency however noted that the “theme and sub-themes of this National Council on Health reflect the above WHO priorities in the extended GPW13, and the Transformation Agenda of the African Region.
“The WHO as a member state organization, will depend on the strategic guidance of the health sector plan, which will be enriched by the outcome of this National Council on Health, to translate these into the Nigeria Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS), even as we advance effort towards 2024-2025 program budget.”
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