In August 2016, MamaYe convened a forum on Primary Health Care (PHC) to develop advocacy strategies that would facilitate the implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR), which is a policy to integrate all PHC structures and programs at sub-national levels, under one State level body – the State Primary Health Care Development Agency/Board.
The forum brought together development partners and civil society organisations from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, with the purpose of building a coalition of advocates for the implementation of the PHCUOR policy. The duty of the coalition was to develop an advocacy strategy and messages for PHCUOR policy implementation and management in Nigeria.
PHCUOR was introduced in Nigeria to improve the implementation of PHC, using 1 Management, 1 Plan and 1 Monitoring and Evaluation as a principle. The principle is based on resolution 29 of the 54th National Council on Health meeting of May 2011, which is backed by the National Health Act of 2014. The PHC declaration was adopted at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR in 1978.
PHCUOR and the 9 pillars (pic)
MamaYe’s PHC Advocacy Project is aimed at increasing recognition and support for primary health care by civil society organisations, governments, donors and development partners. This informs why, when we set out, we sought to identify weaknesses in the implementation of PHCUOR, based on the PHCUOR Implementation Scorecard III report and to work with the advocacy coalition to identify and implement solutions.
Governance and ownership, legislation, funding, human resource, budget implementation, office space, logistics and public buy-in were some of the numerous areas that the coalitions identified as areas that required advocacy to implement.
In February 2017, we convened another forum to review the activities of the coalitions. The outcome, thus far, has been encouraging. There were strong indications showing progress made with the advocacy efforts to implement PHCUOR in Nigeria.
Below are some tweets from the February forum where the PHCUOR advocacy coalition delegates presented some of their achievements: (pic)
Executive Secretaries of State Primary Health Care Development Agencies from Oyo, Cross River, Katsina, Niger, Gombe, , Abia, Nasarawa, Bauchi, and were also at the forum, as they are the ones who oversee the affairs of the PHC Policy and PHCUOR implementation.
This March (2017), MamaYe is sharing experience with stakeholders at the PHC Expenditure & Budget Advocacy Consultation in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Dr. Tunde Segun, MamaYe (Evidence for Action) Country Director said at the conference that “MamaYe is strong on advocacy for maternal and newborn health, but we are also foraying into the primary health care space to ensure that every woman and every baby get the services that are required in a qualitative manner at the primary health care level.Fortunately for us in Nigeria, we have the Primary Health Care Under One Roof. We are going to incorporate the learning into our PHC advocacy strategy for the implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof in Nigeria so that PHC becomes the strong bedrock for services and quality delivery of care in our country.”
MamaYe is foraying into the primary health care space to ensure that every woman and every baby gets the services that they require.
The MamaYe Advocacy Advisor, Fola Richie-Adewusi, who is facilitating forums for the PHCUOR Advocacy Coalition, also said at the Johannesburg meeting that “MamaYe’s work is relevant to PHC advocacy because we work in maternal and newborn health, and the women and the newborns are the ones that access health care at the primary level. So it is very important for us to advocate for full implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof, which is a policy in Nigeria so that the package of care at that level provides opportunity for women and children to access quality care that will impact positively on their lives.”
MamaYe’s work is relevant to PHC advocacy because we work in maternal and newborn health, and the women and the newborns are the ones that access health care at the primary level.
A robust PHC system has been described as germane to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Proper management and implementation of the policy will help achieve the objectives of UHC, which are equity in access to health care, quality of health care services and protection from financial risks while seeking health care services.