NIGERIA—Aligning with the health transformative agenda of the government of Nigeria, the World Health Organization (WHO)-Nigeria is reviewing its 3rd generation Country Cooperation Strategy 2018-2022 (CCS III).
WHO recognizes that the review will help identify game-changing strategic directions and alliances to support the country in strengthening its health system, achieving public health impact, and better health outcomes in the next five years.
A two-day feedback workshop on the evaluation of the 3rd WHO Country Cooperation Strategy (2018-2022) and identification of strategic priorities for the 4th WHO-Nigeria Country Cooperation Strategy is currently underway in Abuja.
Consequently, the new CCS III will be useful to help the government address the lingering nation’s healthcare challenges.
Challenges that have been convoluted by inadequate health infrastructure, fragmentation, an overburdened workforce, poor insurance coverage (catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures), high maternal and infant mortality, inadequate preventative care, and dependence on imported medicines, commodities, equipment, and vaccines.
Dr. Salma Anas-Ibrahim, the Special Adviser, Health to President Bola Tinubu while addressing participants while opening the workshop said that the review by WHO was quite timely with the new government prioritizing and setting its agenda for the different sectors.
“As the WHO is a member state organization, the 4th Generation CCS would support the government of Nigeria to actualize these ideas, especially in coordination and building sustainable partnerships,” she said.
Dr. Anas-Ibrahim explained that the government’s healthcare reforms agenda would align with the existing national health plans to improve the health fortune of the people of Nigeria and shall be hitched and defined by the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“The health needs of the citizens of this country are therefore prioritized as a fundamental human right and a matter of national security which the government shall greatly invest in for national growth, development, and sustainable prosperity,” insisted Dr. Anas-Ibrahim.
WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said that the workshop was to co-create a strategic health agenda that aligns with WHO’s collaboration with other United Nations bodies and development partners at the country level based on identified priorities and needs.
Dr. Mulombo explained that member states at the recently concluded 76th World Health Assembly set the pace for accelerating health to achieve the 13th General Program of Work (GPW13) and Sustainable Development Goals and targets by 2030.
“I am confident, that this strategic stakeholders’ engagement, will come up with new realities for joint strategic health agenda for WHO’s technical cooperation in Nigeria in the next five years so that jointly, we will promote health, provide health, protect the health, power health, and perform for health”, Dr. Mulombo assured the attendees.
Nigeria Country Cooperation Strategy comes at a critical time of transition.
Nigeria, like the rest of the world, has experienced a setback due to COVID-19, in main health indices including maternal, neonatal, and child health, requiring innovative ways of working to close the gap.
The workshop in Nigeria is unique in the history of the WHO Nigeria, considering the critical changes within the global health architecture and the political economy of the country.
Moreso, this is demonstrated by the development of the Nigeria National Development Plan 2021-2025, and the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2023-2027 the WHO functional review.
Although a more recent development is the WHOs 5 priorities (promote health, provide health, protect health, power health, and perform for health) to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs within the extended GPW13.
The Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) is a medium-term strategic document that presents WHO’s vision for technical cooperation with a given member state, in support of the country’s national health policy, strategy, or plan.
The development of a new CCS usually follows robust consultative processes and WHO has been engaging with the stakeholders over the past few months to understand what has been done right, the areas we have not done well, and the pointers to the priorities in the next five years.
WHO in Nigeria has developed and successfully implemented three generations of CCS.
The current CSS under review was first developed in 2014, revised in 2018, and extended to 2022 to respond to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Moreover, it was also in line with the Nigeria Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the National Health Policy 2016, the National Strategic Health Development Plan II, the UN Sustainable Development Partnership Framework 2018-2022, and the WHO Transformation Agenda as well as the WHO’s 13″ General Program of Work (GPW13).
A recurring challenge thrown at WHO during the ongoing review is that the international health agency needs to be more innovative and agile to adopt a stronger coordination role as a leading authority in support of the country and partners.
The new Special Health Adviser, Dr. Anas-Ibrahim assured that the new government of President Tinubu was keen to address the lingering nation’s healthcare challenges, including inadequate health infrastructure, fragmentation, and an overburdened workforce.
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