The World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative making a Presentation at the event in kaduna
By Victoria Onehi
As part of efforts towards achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country,the Federal Government and the John Snow incorporated (JSI) has taken the campaign for Self-care interventions to Kaduna state.
As defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO),Self-care is the ability of individuals,families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health care provider.
At a meeting in Kaduna on Thursday geared towards informing key stakeholders in the Kaduna health sector on the implementation of the National Guideline on Self-care for Sexual Reproductive and Maternal Health (SRMH) in Nigeria, representative of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and Head of the Self-care Desk,Mrs Remi Bajomo said Kaduna becomes the 25th state where the dissemination of the guidelines has occurred.
She said it was in line with the commitment that the FMOH and partners have systematically engaged and disseminated the Self-care guideline in 23 States and the Federal Capital Territory.
” With this meeting, Kaduna becomes the 25th state where this dissemination has occurred. Plans are ongoing to carry out same advocacy and engagement visits in the remaining States of the federation,” she said.
Bajomo said the Federal Ministry of Health and Partners have developed the Demand Generation Strategy for Self-care interventions to create awareness and change the perception and behaviour around self-care interventions while a monitoring and evaluation framework has been developed to monitor the progress of the implementation of self-care intervention in Nigeria.
She urged stakeholders in Kaduna and the various stakeholders within their wide sphere of influence to play their roles to achieve successful implementation of the National Guideline on Self-Care for Sexual, Reproductive and Maternal Health in Nigeria.
“Self-care has become more important with the rapidly growing population of Nigeria and the consequent pressure on the limited conventional healthcare facilities.”
” Furthermore, Self-care can reduce unnecessary overdependence on health facilities for services which individuals or families could provide for themselves. It is a complementary component of the overall health care system. The benefits of Self-care to the Health System has enormous benefits such as reduced workload on health care workers and increased access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in a safe and private space leveraging innovations and digital platforms to access or deliver safe and appropriate health care services.”Bajomo explained.
She recalled that in June 2019, following the release of the World Health Organisation(WHO) Consolidated Guideline on Self-care interventions for Sexual and Reproductive Health, the Federal Ministry of Health through consultative process, adapted the Guideline culminating to the development of the National Guidelines on Self-care for Sexual. Reproductive and Maternal Health and an implementation plan which was officially launched in March 2022.
” The Federal Ministry of Health appreciates the strong collaboration with development partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO), John Snow Incorporated (JSI). White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, Pathfinder International, Society for Family Health, Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), United Nations Population Fund, International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria who have continuously worked collaboratively with the Government right from the commencement of the process of developing the National Guideline on Self-care to ensuring seamless and effective implementation.” Bajomo said.
Team lead for the Self-care Accelerated Project (S-CAP) for John Snow incorporated (JSI) Gbenga Ishola, said JSI is one of the implementing partners.
“We are one of the organisations that funded the development of the National guidelines on Self-care in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health which is one of the things we have distributed here today.”
” In addition to what the National Government has done, which is that they have provided the National Guidelines, the issue is, is it possible for each state to domesticate the National Guidelines?”
“So,one of the things we are doing with Kaduna state government is to say, domesticate this and it will be good.They will domesticate based on their socio-cultural,political and economic environment. The Kaduna state Ministry of Health can say,out of this in the National Guidelines,these are the ones we want to pursue.That is part of the domestication. And it is very important because when you do that,it create ownership. It means you are not taking all what the National Guidelines is offering you,you are considering your own based on your resources. And when states domesticate, what it entails is that, people from Kaduna state will be the ones to identify and define these things. This is one of the things we are promoting in Kaduna state.” He explained.
Ishola added that when states domesticate the guidelines,it ensures sustainability and also,it will make such services readily available and accessible to the citizens.
Director of Public Health, Kaduna state Ministry of Health, Dr. Abubakar Sadiq, commended the Federal Ministry of Health for developing the manual for sexual and reproductive health as well as maternal health which he said will go a long way in addressing maternal mortality in the state and the country at large.
