The Federal Government of Nigeria has officially launched the North East Health Sector Humanitarian Crisis response plan. The document was launched by the Honorable Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole on Thursday 27th of January, 2017, during the opening session of the National Council of Health meeting in Abia state.
This document is part of the sectoral response to the humanitarian crisis caused by years of terrorism and militancy, and in tandem with the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s efforts to ensure a robust humanitarian response to the crisis in the North East.
The Minister in his presentation said, “the region (North East) has suffered from wanton destruction of properties including health facilities, economic losses, forced migration and associated health consequences of the crisis. The insurgency caused severe hardship and huge displacement of people especially in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states. It was estimated that the insurgency had resulted in displacement of approximately 4.5 million vulnerable people.”
Prof. Adewole noted that there is a need to develop a national template for health sector response to humanitarian emergencies and recommended the document as a reference.
Among the objectives of the plan includes – to ensure access of affected population to an essential package of primary and secondary lifesaving health services; to improve access to cost-effective tertiary care; to restore and strengthen/improve the main health system functions; to strengthen the capacity for Disaster Preparedness and Response at the three tiers of the health system, with a focus on the North-East Zone emergency; to support State and Local Government authorities and to improve the communities’ involvement in risk mitigation and overall Community Resilience.
The Honorable Minister also thanked the development partners for their interventions, including MNCH2 – a UKAid sponsored program for supporting the development of the publication.
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