Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, in collaboration with an NGO, Resolve To Save Lives, has begun a joint external evaluation of the state’s health security system regarding preparedness and response to disease outbreaks.
The exercise is being supported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).
Speaking at the event on Tuesday in Lafia, Dr Gaza Gwamna, Nasarawa Commissioner for Health, said the state had done so much to reposition the sector to safeguard the health of citizens.
Represented by Dr John Damina, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, the Commissioner highlighted some of the ministry’s efforts in detection, prevention, and response to disease outbreaks.
He noted that the external assessment of the capacities of the state health security system would help to identify the gaps across the various components and proffer solutions to have a robust and effective system.
In his remarks, the Director-General of NCDC, Dr Olajide Idris, said the Centre was part of the joint external evaluation exercise aimed at strengthening the capacities of states to prepare and respond to disease outbreaks.
The D-G, represented by Dr Oyeladun Okunromade, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at NCDC, maintained that the assessment would help to identify the strengths and gaps that exist within the health system at the state level.
“After identifying the gaps, we look at how best to prioritize actions to ensure that we work towards bridging those gaps and build on the health security system at the state level.
“At the end of the day, the exercise will help to move the state forward and be beneficial to the health of the entire population,” he said.
Idris explained that recommendations from the evaluation exercise would be developed into the State Action Plan for Health Security.
He said the Action Plan would be used to advocate to policymakers- the state government and state assembly to ensure that they allocated enough domestic available resources to help the state build the needed resilient health security system.
Also speaking, Nanlop Ogbureke, the Executive Director of Resolve To Save Lives Nigeria, said the external evaluation was the second phase of the process, with the first phase being done internally in the state ministry of health and other related ministries to ascertain their level of health security preparedness and response.
She explained that the joint external evaluation exercise involves external reviewers – experts in international health regulation, who were more familiar with the monitoring and evaluation framework for health security.
According to Ogbureke, the exercise, which involves the use of a World Health Organisation (WHO) tool, is an opportunity for Nasarawa State to know where they are in terms of their capacity to respond to disease outbreaks.
She noted that experience from the COVID-19 pandemic had shown that for Nigeria to effectively respond to health security concerns, there was a need to build the capacities of the states.
“Once the capacities of the sub-nationals are strong, then we would be able to adequately and collectively respond to health security concerns within the country because it’s an aggregation of different states capacities, ” she said.
The executive director said that the assessment was a multi-sectoral approach to identify gaps and look at opportunities to better strengthen the health outcome of the population.
She explained that the review would cover 14 technical areas involving the Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries such as Agriculture, Environment, Finance, and Justice – including legal reforms.
“We hope that the state take ownership, make the right investment, make sure that it’s cost-effective, and we have the right people in the room besides the ministry of health,” she said.
(NAN).