Participants during the Safe Motherhood, Safe Deliveries, and Family Planning meeting organized by GIWAC

Determined to save pregnant women from dying during deliveries, the Kaduna state Government partners with the Global Women Initiatives Support Group (GIWAC), a sub grantee of the development Research and Projects Center (dRPC) in the PACFaH@Scale project to organize a roundtable for reproductive health (RH) coordinators and partners in the state.

The event, held October 2, had three objectives:  to update the local government areas RH Coordinators and Partners on the status of FP in Kaduna State; to review antenatal care (ANC) and delivery protocols at the local government levels, and to discuss ways to effectively move forward.

All RH Coordinators from the 23 local government areas (LGA) of the state participated in the one-day roundtable to discuss and proffer solutions to the challenges of family planning (FP), ANC and deliveries in the state.

Welcome Address

In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Hamza Abubakar emphasized on the need to save vulnerable pregnant women.,  ‘’The work starts here but does not end here, hence the need to respond to the question of how well we are doing in moving reproductive health in the state’’ he said. 

Opening Remarks

The Commissioner of Human Services and Social Development, Kaduna state, Hon. Hajiya Hafsat Muhammad Baba charged RH coordinators to hold coordination meetings with or without the support of partners, emphasizing that the need  to think outside the box and to ensure  continuity of the coordinators’ meeting as the only platform where key issues facing RH are  identified and discussed. The Commissioner said there was a need for sub councils meeting to articulate issues before they are presented to the state executive council for decision. She assured that challenges and recommendations from the meeting will be sent to the Executive Governor for his action.

Update on the status of FP in the state. 

Update on the status of FP in Kaduna State was presented by the State’s Reproductive Health Coordinator, KSPHCPA, Nafisa Musa Isah. According to her, there are 1.8 million women of reproductive age in the state, with TFR (Total Fertility Rate) 5.6 and unmet needs of 34% according to the Performance Monitoring and Accountability (PMA 2020). The state also has a contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of 12.8% and a population growth rate of 3.0%. Despite these disturbing statistics, she said, the state budgeted only N147.7 million for FP and released only N5.516 million this year.

Challenges

The meeting identified challenges that bedevil   the success of RH program in the state. These challenges include

• Late Supply of FP commodities leading to Stock out. 
• Limited number of Facilities. 
• Inadequate Man Power. 
• Inadequate supply from the National ware house (especially implants). 
• Lack of report tools in the LGA  

Recommendations

Participants at the meeting made the following recommendations.

• The need to print and distribute Requisition Issue and Requisition Report (RIRF) forms for states, LGAs and the service delivery points (SDP) to minimize reporting errors. 
• Need to increase demand for services and build capacities of service providers in the state  
• Encourage partners supporting the states to follow up on state level requisition to ensure prompt supply of FP commodities. 
• Strengthen task shifting policy while awaiting planned recruitment by the State Government. 

Partners Contributions

• United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative pointed out the need for Agencies to help in closing up the wide gap, in accessing FP commodities due to high demand and global Shortage. 
• The Project Director IIGES-PAS, Hon. Hafsat Muhammad Baba commented on the need for funding and further push in Realizing requested funds, working tools should also be made available. 
• Kaduna RH Coordinator said even the N5million approved for release this year is yet to be released.
• CHAI Representative,   stressed the need to check frequent transfer of Partners’ Staff who build capacity as this affects efficiency. He also stressed the need for improvement in the area of infection prevention services in the PHCs in response to the comment, the Kaduna State RH Coordinator said infection prevention services will be improved, and urged all those concerned to act as watch dogs.

Next Steps  

• A meeting of partners’, zonal Coordinators to be held October 9, at the state PHC office to plan the forthcoming Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) week, 2019. The meeting is expected to come up with strategies and workplan to meet the increased targets of 80,000 persons. 
• Another meeting date was also scheduled for 14th October 2019. To discuss Agreement reached with other Zonal RH Coordinators. 
• A meeting to discuss proper distribution plan at a convenient venue to discuss the MNCH week. 
• Regarding the Huge gap in adolescent Program Forms were distributed to RH Coordinators to their Facilities to augment what they are doing.
• GIWAC-PAS and other CSOs should help track FP budget in the state.

As the meeting came to a close, it was agreed that another RH Coordinators meeting will be conducted in November 2019.