National Wire About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories
By Chinyere Abiaziem
Pathfinder International Nigeria, under the Smart Advocacy for Strategic Action (SASA) project implemented in collaboration with PPDARO and Jhpiego Kenya have trained journalists and social media influencers on prioritising Family Planning (FP) and Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH) advocacy.
The organisers who lamented the alarming number of maternal deaths, revealed that the situation was even more tragic based on the fact that nearly 90 percent of the deaths are avoidable.
They cited haemorrhage, premature births, and malnutrition as part of conditions that could be mitigated with proper healthcare infrastructure and access.
At the two-day capacity-strengthening workshop in Abuja, the facilitators comprising of communication and medical experts, stressed the need for the media to influence increased funding for FP/MNCH.
Also track right usage of funds, enhance accountability of decision makers, monitor policy implementation and highlight service delivery gaps through their creative reportings.
The over 30 participants drawn from Kaduna, Kano, Abuja and Lagos, were urged to adopt strategies including fewer words, clarity, empathy, feedbacks and understanding FP,MNCH terminologies.
They were as well urged to demonstrate respect for human rights and respect of cultural differences(as child birth spacing is used instead of family planning in Northern Nigeria) in passing their messages to the right audience.
Additionally, they were tasked on repetition(consistency) of messages to avoid confusion and the application of investigation journalism (uncovering problems) and solution journalism to FP/MNCH in order to create a balance in spotlighting what is not working and the level of interventions given by individuals, groups or government.
Senior Media and Communication Officer for Pathfinder International Nigeria,
Mr. Bayo Ewuola, while granting an interview, noted, “…We believe that these are not abstract concepts, they are about people’s lives, they are about our mothers, our sisters, our daughters. You know media is a powerful engine for change, and we want media to start telling more ethical, more impactful stories about issues that affect people in different communities.
“We want to improve funding for family planning and maternal and child care.
We also want to see a situation whereby policies are being implemented. That is why we brought together media to serve as advocates, and also watchdog, to be able to set agenda, to frame better stories that will lead to impact.”
Dr. Ejike Oji, Chairman of the management committee of the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning (AAFP) and Chair of Nigeria Civil Society (CSO) Focal Point FP 2030 Commitment, said it was important that the media and the public take more interest in the accountability process in procurement of family planning commodities.
Oji, who lauded the Present Minister of Health for making history by taking the bold initiative to approve 60 million dollars for procurement of family planning commodities through the National Primary Health Agency, decried the non-release of adequate funds despite official approval of funds.
He cited in his presentation how only 60 million naira was released at the beginning of this year, out of a total of four million dollars approved by the government.
Meanwhile, President of National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Alhassan Yahaya, in his charge, further called on the media to see reporting FP/MNCH as service to humanity, while adding:”Media will have a critical role to play, by making sure that we sensitise, educate and enlighten the populace. By doing that, we also need to have a huge amount of resources allocated to media for communication.
“Through that, we will be able to come up with strategic partnership, with strategic content, with strategic programming that is going to change the way we operate.”
