dRPC worthy advocates of improved healthcare in Nigeria – NIPSS DG

dRPC worthy advocates of improved healthcare in Nigeria – NIPSS DG 

The acting Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPPS, Jonathan Juma, has lauded the activities of the Development Research and Project Centre, dRPC, saying that the NGO is a worthy ambassador and advocate for an improved healthcare delivery and education in the country.

The director-general stated this on Wednesday during this year’s senior civil servants’ workshop on healthcare administration in Nigeria organised by dRPC in partnership with the NIPSS in Abuja.

DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the training, with the theme: ‘Using Data for Effective Child and Family Health Policy-making and Financing’, is in its third year and drew 30 participants from across the country.

According to him, NIPPS regards dRPC as one of the most reputable and credible NGOs in the country that is concerned with bridging the gap between healthcare policymakers, implementers and the end-users.

However, Mr Juma decried how evidence-based policymaking has been a major challenge over the years.

He, therefore, urged the participants to take advantage of the rare opportunity to acquire necessary knowledge and skills that would impact on child and family health policy-making and financing in the country.

“The organisers have high expectations that not only will your capacity be built but the outcome of this 3-day workshop will come up with action-oriented recommendations for effective health policy making and financing,” he said.

Earlier in her welcome address, the Country Director of the dRPC, Judith-Ann Walker Said the 3-day ‘impactful’ capacity-building training was aimed at building champions within the government bureaucracy.

She, therefore, craved for open-mindedness in addressing Nigerian’s health challenges.

Also speaking, the Senior Technical Advisor to PACFaH@scale, Emmanuel Abanida, said the training was organised in order to bridge a gap in the utilization of pieces of evidence that are generated by the duty-bearers to inform or to programme actions so that we can have better results.

“The training is put together to have a synthesis of the high government officials, policy-making arms of government, senior civil servant, civil society organization and people that are using data to inform decisions.

“Basically, this training is to bridge the gap between pieces of evidence that are generated and how they are used.

“There are a lot of data out there but the credibility of these data is the issue. Therefore, at the end of this training, participants will have the opportunity to be able to filter data that are really key to their programme objectives,” Mr Abanida emphasised.

DAILY NIGERIAN reports that dRPC is a leading NGO under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale, PACFaH@Scale that aims to strengthen the capacities of indigenous CSO to hold policy decision-makers accountable in terms of to their financial commitments to the people.