Stakeholders in the health sector have called on the Taraba Government to prioritise timely release of health budgetary allocation to key budget lines that seek to promote child health.
They made the call following the recent release of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) for 2023-2024, which showed no improvement in the child mortality rate.
Malam Aminu Usman, the Programme Manager, Maigodiya Centre for Youth Development (MCYD), told the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday in Jalingo that more practical actions were needed to tackle the menace.
Usman noted that steps, such as specific releases of health budgetary allocation for essential lifesaving commodities for health facilities and that of maternal and prenatal death surveillance and response committee, would mitigate child death.
“I know that the Taraba Ministry of Health has specific budget lines that seek to address child death, but timely release of funds to these lines has always been the challenge.
“The recent release of data by NDHS for 2023-2024, which showed alarming rates of death of infants, neonatals, and children under five, should be a wake-up call for the government and all the stakeholders,” he said.
The programme manager, who commended Gov Agbu Kefas for increasing the health budgetary allocation in the 2024 budget from 7.8 to 10.5, urged the government to meet the 15 per cent Abuja declaration for health budget in the 2025 budget.
Mrs Susan Manu, a mother, told NAN that the current Taraba government, in collaboration with partners in the health sector, was doing its best in improving the health sector.
Manu said that timely releases of the budgetary allocations would make the interventions more consistent and sustainable.
NAN recalls that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bauchi Field Office, has recently organised a media dialogue in Jos to ignite a meaningful conversation about child mortality in Bauchi, Gombe, and Taraba states.
The dialogue focused on raising awareness of the root causes of child mortality, its socio-economic and health impacts, and the urgent need for collective action from a broad range of stakeholders.
Dr. David Audu, UNICEF Health Specialist, had charged journalists to always report on issues that promote child health for the good of all.
He noted that the call had become necessary given that child mortality was a major public health challenge in Nigeria, with approximately 120,000 children under the age of five dying yearly. (NAN)
