The Kaduna State Ministry of Health, on Thursday, began a three-day meeting to review its Health Sector Strategic Plan, 2018-2022, to improve service delivery in the health sector.

The review was supported by Partnership to Engage, Reform, and learn (PERL), a governance programme of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

PERL State Team Facilitator, Abel Adejor, at the opening of the meeting in Kano, said the goal was to improve the quality of services in the health sector and the health and wellbeing of the people.

Adejor said the participants would assess the implementation of the 2018-2022 plan, ascertain key achievements, challenges, lessons learnt and update the plan to cover 2023 to 2027.

“PERL is providing technical support to the ministry being the coordinating agency of the health sector, to strengthen the delivery of quality services to residents of the state.

“This is in line with PERL support in clearing blockages in governance by bringing government and citizens to plan and implement programmes and policy together in line with the principle of Open Government Partnership (OGP),” he said.

According to him, the state is being rated highly by the OGP global as a sub-national doing very well in improving citizens’ engagement, transparency and accountability in governance.

Adejor said key milestones were being achieved working with citizens through various accountability mechanisms in the state.

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He listed the accountability mechanisms as, Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism and Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism.

Others, he said, were Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition, Kaduna Local Government Accountability Mechanism and Tax Justice Network.

He stated that the mechanisms provided the needed platforms for continued engagement between government and citizens in different sectors, to address blockages and improve service delivery.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Adamu Mansur, said the review was critical to determining the progress recorded in the implementation of the strategic plan.

Mansur, represented by Dr Gajere Jonathan, Deputy Director, Medical Services in the ministry, said that the review would also help the government document achievements and plan ahead.

One of the consultants, Dr Adebayo Adeyemo, commended the Kaduna State Government for the efforts to improve the quality of service delivery through reforms, strategic plans and enabling policies.

Adebayo said the review would enable the state to know what had been done better, the challenges, and how to address them.

“We want a strategy that will be implemented with the main goal of improving service delivery that would lead to better outcomes.

“It is not enough to develop strategies, its implementation and how it will improve the health of residents of the state is key,” he said.

The participants at the meeting include officials of the state Ministry of Health, Primary Health Care Board and Health Supply Management Agency.

Others are Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority, Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna Maternal Accountability Mechanism and the OGP Technical Working Group on Social Protection.

Also represented are Kaduna State College of Nursing and Midwifery and Kaduna State Bureau for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment.

The Star