Health commissioners, executive secretaries of state health agencies, and other health stakeholders have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening primary healthcare and child survival initiatives.

They spoke in Abuja on Thursday during a meeting on ‘Integrated Child Survival Advocacy’.

During the event, discussions focused on policy priorities, financing, and accountability mechanisms for health agencies at the state and local government levels. Others at the meeting were health officers from the federal institutions, development partners, and civil society leaders.

The event was part of the CSA project, which focuses on Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Sokoto. The project is supported by Nana Girls and Women Empowerment Initiative, and Civil Society in Making Control Immunisation and Nutrition.

Nihinlola Mabogunje, ICSA project Lead, said the engagement was part of a broader effort to strengthen public systems and leadership for child health through evidence-based advocacy and intergovernmental coordination.

She said the project also aimed at sustainable financing for primary health care. According to her, there is a need to fashion out practical actions states can take to improve service delivery and reinforce accountability to communities.

Ms Mabogunje said that ICSA would advocate for resources to be made available for state health agencies, to enable every child have a good quality of life.

Fatima Adamu said that the states selected to test-run the project had not had impressive child-survival indices.

According to her, this is worrisome because all the sicknesses are preventable.

Farouk Abubakar, Sokoto’s health commissioner, who shared his experience, said the state has a high number of maternal and infant mortality.

He said there was a need for strategies to crash the maternal and infant mortality rates in the state and appreciated the initiators of the project and the Federal Ministry of Health for their support.

Mr Abubakar said that the government was already tackling the drivers of high maternal and infant mortality rates.

(NAN)