In its effort to support the fight against child and maternal mortality in Nigeria a Non Governmental Organisation funded by the renowned American Billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates called Partner Collaborating Together PACT has launched a project today in Gombe which it said was to further expand its intervention that assist in tackling the fight against the dreaded threat.
While making a remark at the occasion held at the banquet hall of the government house Gombe, the country director PACT Nigeria Dr Audu Liman has said the effort was to improve accountability and quality service delivery with focus on women and children in the state.
According to him, the project with support from the funders has been implementing capacity development projects that have been working with Ministries of Health, Economic Planning State Primary Health Care Development Agencies and other society groups targeting state and non state partners with the aim to achieve quality delivery.
He said project has been funded to conduct intensive studies to enable it identify opportunities and barriers in other to improve social accountability and quality of maternal and neonatal service delivery in local communities.
Adding that the project will heavily rely on Emirs, traditional rulers to to achieve its aim saying improved synergetic relationship between health providers and citizens would help a great deal in achieving quality health service outcomes.
On his part, the Executive Governor of Gombe State Alh Ibrahim Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government Alh Sule Bage expressed commitment towards supporting the project. He said the state has been giving priority to women and children health related issues by providing free health care for women and children in the state.
Maternal neonatal mortality has been a very serious concern in Nigeria, and even though there have been some recorded achievement in the effort of reducing the menace, Nigeria has been reported to be lagging behind in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs. According to reports, northern Nigeria has the highest rate of neonatal and maternal mortality compared to other regions of the country with 1,549 deaths per 100,000 live births.
