CSBS news desk
Committed to life-saving changes for mothers and babies, MamaYe Nigeria has launched the Bauchi State Accountability Mechanism for Maternal and Newborn Health (BaSAM) to improve health care facilities for nursing mothers.
The program, which also make available to the nursing mothers subsidized pregnancy packages is initiated with a wider inclusion of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media in Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) governance and budget process.
The accountability mechanism BaSAM, is made up of CSOs, the media and government. BaSAM consists of sub-committees committed to producing evidence materials and advocacy briefs that are communicated to the government to influence decisions on maternal and newborn health.
In support of the MNH cause, the General Manager of Globe FM, Bauchi provided one free hour of engaging stakeholders in the maternal health sector.
On the program, BaSAM Co-chair, Hajiya Maryam Garba, and MamaYe State Coordinator in Bauchi, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed spoke on different ways to find out, among other issues, the level of involvement of CSOs in the State’s budget process, and how through the accountability mechanism, CSOs can contribute to the Bauchi State 2016 budget process to ensure that adequate and evidence-based allocation is accorded to the health of pregnant women and newborns.
Mr. Abdullahi also said during the radio engagement that with the revised 2015 budget, the health sector has received tremendous attention from the current government. He gave the governor’s 5-point health agenda and the commitment to give 15% of the State’s budget to the health sector as examples of the government’s seriousness. He expressed optimism that the executive is also going to give priority to the health sector in its 2016 budget.
In the 2015 budget of Bauchi State Commission of Youth and Women Rehabilitation and Development, for 6 local governments, 22 million Naira was budgeted for the purchase of medical kits for pregnant women. Women of childbearing age in the 6 Local Government Areas combined are 694,554.
The MamaYe Bauchi State coordinator also touched on MamaYe’s support to the State Ministry of Health and its agencies on the use of their own evidences to develop their plans so that they could adequately address the real gaps in health budgeting.
