Lagos, 26 November 2007 -- The 51st National Council on Health (NCH) meeting held in Lagos from 19 – 23 November 2007. The meeting, which is the highest national policy making and advisory body on health matters in the country, had in attendance the Minister of Health, Minister of State for Health and State Commissioners for Health as well as top management staff of both the Federal and State Ministries of Health and their parastatals and agencies.
        
Opening the Council meeting on the 21st of November, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola said the theme of the Council session, Creating Wealth through Health: meeting the challenges reinforces the concept that while health is not a goal to be pursued of itself, it still remains that basic resource for daily life. The Governor was represented by his deputy, Mrs. Sarah Adebisi Sosan.

Governor Fashola noted that good health is therefore foundational for personal, organizational and national development, as the achievement of optimal levels of productivity, efficiency and innovation rely primarily on the optimal functioning of the human instrument. He further added that as a government, his administration has duly recognized the centrality of health in the overall development of Lagos, especially as it charts its course towards the Lagos mega-city of the future. In his words, “because we are aware of the attendant health challenges that will come as a result of the mega-city status, we are also prepared to make the requisite investments in health to achieve our collective dreams. Our commitment for continued investments in health remains steadfast”.

In her address on the occasion, Minister of Health, Prof. Adenike Grange said the theme of the Conference derived from the President’s 7-point agenda that places a high premium on the development of human capital, and recognizes that health and education are the twin engines that drive national development by developing human capital.

Prof. Grange noted that while the Nigerian health sector has witnessed various forms of reform since 1999, all targeted towards improving health service delivery and quality of care, leading to the development of several policy and strategic framework documents for various projects and programmes, these programmes have fallen short of making a significant impact towards improving health service delivery, due to a relatively poor emphasis on implementation, monitoring and evaluation. She promised that the present administration would “move the health sector reform forward, building on the policies and frameworks that have been developed, focusing on the implementation, integration, monitoring and evaluation”.

The Minister then used the opportunity to share with delegates the vision and mission of her administration, as she introduced the National Health Investment Plan (NHIP), which is an approach for the performance of long range planning, identifying and quantifying on the one hand, the resource requirements and financing pool and their mobilization, and on the other hand, for the clear articulation of the strategies to be supported by the resources mobilized, along with the expected measurable and sustainable outcomes. She added that the vision rightfully addresses the key issues of getting Nigeria back on track in order to achieve the health-related MDGs by 2015.

The Health Investment Plan addresses and would be implemented through six independent but related investment strategies. When fully developed, The NHIP would serve to holistically coordinate donor partners and Government investment in the health sector.

Prof. Grange then called for more investment in the health sector and more efficient equitable use of the investment resources, which she said are essential for national development. “In order to achieve the vision of efficient and effective health care delivery through oversight and enhanced political commitment”, the Minister said, “it is recommended that government set up a national Council on Macroeconomics and Health, bringing together key drivers of the economy in alliance with health”.

Presentations on various health issues were made during the meeting and Resolutions adopted at the end. The first two days of the meeting were used for the Technical Committee meeting while the last three days featured the Council meeting proper. Present at the meeting were Dr. Peter Eriki, WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Anthony Seddoh of WHO Regional Office for Africa and representatives of other development partners.

For more details, please contact 
Austine Oghide, HIP, WHO-Nigeria. 
Tel: 234  (0) 8034022390. E-mail: oghidea [at] ng.afro.who.int 
Website: http://www.who.int/countries/nga/en