The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a $500 million-International Development Association (IDA) credit to significantly improve maternal, child, and nutrition health services for women and children in the country.
Aimed at improving access to higher quality health services, the new development financing will help Nigeria achieve its “Saving One Million Lives (SOML) Initiative,” which was launched by the Federal Ministry of Health in October 2012 to save the lives of the more than 900,000 women and children who die every year from largely preventable causes.
World Bank Lead Health Specialist and Task Team Leader for the new project, Mr. Benjamin Loevinsohn said: “Saving One Million Lives is a bold response from the Nigerian government to improve the health of the country’s mothers and children so they can survive illness and thrive. This, in turn, will also contribute to the social and economic development of Africa’s largest economy.”
Nigeria accounts for 14 per cent of all annual maternal deaths worldwide, second only to India at 17 per cent. Similarly, it accounts for 13 per cent of all global deaths of children under the age of five years, again second only to India at 21 per cent.
Nigeria Country Director, World Bank, Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly said: “This welcome new Program for Results operation for health will also strengthen Nigeria’s own health system and development footing while also providing an important mechanism for bringing both Government and development partners together around a commitment to achieve specific, tangible results.”
To address the challenge of its 900,000 maternal and child deaths, the SOML Initiative focuses on increasing the use of high-impact reproductive and child health and nutrition interventions; improving the quality of these services; strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems and measurement data; encouraging private sector innovation; and increasing transparency in management and budgeting for Primary Health Care (PHC) in the country.
The World Bank’s support for SOML will utilize the Program-for-Results or PforR instrument to encourage a greater focus on results, increase accountability, improve measurements, strengthen management, and foster innovation.
PforR funds will only be disbursed to the Federal and State governments for independently verified improvements in key services such as vaccination coverage among young children, rates of contraceptive use, Vitamin A supplementation, skilled birth attendance, HIV counselling and testing among women attending antenatal care, and preventing new malaria infections among children by using insecticide- treated bed nets when they sleep.
Federal and State governments will also receive incentive payments for better tackling governance and management issues in the health sector and for improving the quality of basic health services.
It came as the Government of Japan over the weekend in Abuja extended a $4.5 million-grant to the federal government for the provision of Japanese disaster reduction equipment following the Sendai Declaration and Sendai Framework for Disaster reduction 2015-2030 which were adopted by consensus by 187 UN member countries.
The non-project grant aid is intended to steadily fulfil Nigeria’s commitment to the declaration.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman said Nigeria’s response level to either natural or man-made disasters may have not matched the magnitude of negative occurrences after several degrees of disasters including flooding, draught, fire disasters, disease epidemic, terrorism, climate change and oil spillage over the years.
He said resources for effective management of the occurrences were not readily available, thus necessitating the support from development partners.
He said:”This occasion is unique as it marks yet another milestone in the annals of the history of bilateral economic cooperation between our two countries adding that the non-grant aid “is no doubt another step by the Japanese Government to assist the country in dealing with natural disasters.”
