Abuja Declaration: #Mamora Urges Increased Collaboration Mo meet 15% Budget Pledge

Abuja Declaration: #Mamora Urges Increased Collaboration Mo meet 15% Budget Pledge—The Minister of State for Health, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, says the pledge to allocate at least 15 per cent of annual budgets to the health sector by African governments requires increased stakeholders’ collaboration.

He said this on Thursday in Abuja at the Ministerial Press Briefing to mark the 2022 World Health Day, celebrated every year on April 7 since 1950 to raise awareness about ongoing health issues that concern people across the world.

Newsmen reports that the 2022 World Health Day has “Our Planet, Our Health” as its theme.

The day is to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1948.

NAN also reports that 20 years ago, heads of state and government  of African Union member countries came together at a summit to address challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases plaguing the region.

On April 27, 2001, several commitments, including Nigeria’s 15 per cent budget pledge were made to bolster resources and improve healthcare across Africa.

Mamora said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was committed to the Abuja Declaration pledge and also to the Global Health Security Agenda on Domestic Sustainable Funding for Health Security because sustainable funding for health security was critical to protecting Nigerians.

He added that “if Nigerians are looking strictly for the 15 per cent Abuja Declaration pledge, they may not see it in the health sector budget, but a lot of things are happening that are not primarily issues of the health sector.

“Issues such as the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme is essentially targetted at checking cholera.

“The Ministry of Water Resources is the national lead agency for the WASH sector, mandated to ensure that Nigerians have easy access to clean, adequate and affordable WASH facilities in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.”

He added that the ministry was also collaborating with the  Ministry of Environment to end open defecation in the country.

The minister said that a multi-sectoral approach was the best weapon to address health challenges. 

Dr Edwin Isotu Edeh, Public Health and Environment (PHE) Programme Coordinator, WHO Nigeria,  said the world body was supporting Nigeria’s response for any transition that was in the health system.

Edeh said that Nigeria was the first country in Africa to begin transition into decarbonised economy, a combination of systems that happened in 2021 when it signed a new commitment.

He said that in a multisectoral one-health approach and in furtherance to achieving Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), WHO shall support the development of Nigeria National Health Adaptation Plan (HNAP) and conduct assessment of the vulnerability and adaptive capacity of the health systems to climate change comprising essential public health interventions.

He noted that this would be in line with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and COP26 Health Programme.

He added that “the world cannot afford to lose sight of the fundamental truth that the climate crisis, the single biggest threat facing humanity today is also very much a health crisis.”

Dr Uzodinma Adirieje , the Chief Executive Officer, AfriHealth Optonet Association, who spoke on behalf of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), said the organisations stepped in to further give information about how people could protect themselves and their families from COVID-19 and other outbreaks in the country.

He added that “by using creative methods such as street art and working in diverse languages, CSOs were able to disseminate important information to different communities.”

NAN recalls that the first World Health Day was celebrated and observed in 1950, after 7 April was set aside as a designated date to celebrate the creation of the World Health Organization in 1948 in the First Health Assembly. The day thereby marks the anniversary of WHO after it was established in 1948