World Health Day 2017: making the sustainable development goals count by reaching the excluded
From Christian Aid Nigeria @CAID_Nigeria
There is an obvious need for the gains of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be distributed equitably. Access to the opportunities and development benefits from the SDGs should reach everyone and close attention should be given to not only the marginalised, but also the hard-to-reach.
People, particularly women and children, living in hard-to-reach communities are the most affected by development challenges. They are the group that die of preventable diseases like malaria, meningitis, diarrhoea. They lack access to quality and useful health information and services. At Christian Aid Nigeria, we make the hard-to-reach a priority by supporting them with basic health care services.
Improving child health
Through the DFID-funded partnership for improved child health, we have already identified 266 hard-to-reach settlements in Benue State, Nigeria, where there is poor or no access to water, sanitation, health information, health commodities and low human resources for health.
We have also begun training health care workers on integrated community case management, and we are helping to constitute and resuscitate community structures such as the community development communities (CDC) for proper management and leadership of communal health facilities. We promote the participation of women who are the vulnerable groups in these structures.
In line with the national task sharing policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which is:
‘To meet the universal health coverage and the health needs of the Nigerian population through the mobilisation of available human resources to ensure equity, accessibility and effectiveness in the delivery of essential health care services.’
Volunteer health workers
Christian Aid Nigeria is currently recruiting volunteers who will be trained as community oriented resource persons (CORPs) to provide the most basic health care services in their communities and write referrals for severe cases.
On World Health Day, we at Christian Aid Nigeria renew our commitment to SDGs 3, 5, and 6 — good health and well-being; gender equality; and clean water and sanitation. We will extend the SDGs benefits to those most in need by giving priority to the neglected, and supporting the hard-to-reach with quality health information and services.
Video: how we’re strengthening community health and HIV response in Nigeria
Happy World Health Day from Christian Aid Nigeria, Taiwo Adesoba, State Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning Coordinator Community Health & HIV.
