By Patrick Obia
Four non-profit making organizations of Policy Alert, Gender Perspective and Social Development Center (GPSDC); Center for Healthworks, Development and Research Initiative (CHEDRES), Concern for Women and Youth Empowerment (COWOYEM), and Initiative for the Prevention and Control of Diseases (IPCD), have commenced sustainable service delivery on tuberculosis in five states in the wake of the World Health Organization’s staggering statistics.
The project implementation is geared towards enhancing and sustaining service delivery through increased domestic investment for Tuberculosis (TB) interventions in five States Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Delta, and Imo.
The FundTB Project is designed to influence several policy improvements in domestic investment for TB in the focal states, such as the creation of TB budget lines, improving releases of allocated TB funds in the approved budgets, extending coverage of state health insurance to TB patients in health insurance scheme, and private sector engagement to enhance TB services through collaborative initiatives, resource support, and knowledge-sharing.
The NGOs said the project, which will be implemented over the next six months by the Fund TB Cluster comprising Policy Alert, GPSDC, CHEDRES, COWOYEM, and IPCD, is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Palladium Group. The project will employ research, campaigns, capacity building, and policy influencing.
A statement issued on behalf of the Fund TB Cluster and signed by Policy Alert’s Executive Director, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, expressed worries about WHO’s data estimating that 156,000 Nigerians died of TB out of 452,000 confirmed cases in 2020. This he said, is 4.6% of the global tuberculosis burden and ranked top in TB prevalence in Africa in 2022.
“This project became necessary as a result of the alarming statistics on TB coming out of Nigeria. Reversing this ugly status quo requires massive investment in health by the federal government and sub-nationals, with a specific focus on TB financing.”
The organizations noted that underfunding of TB programs hinders the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and public awareness campaigns essential to combating the highly infectious and potentially fatal disease comprehensively.
Low allocations and no releases for TB have shifted the burden for TB financing to donors and international partners, as governments at federal and state levels fund less than 10 percent of current interventions.
“This scenario has left a funding gap of 70 percent hampering efforts to stem the tide of prevalence and to provide care for those infected. It is unsustainable to leave the burden of TB financing for donors and development partners, necessitating a different approach to public financial management to free up more resources to close the funding gap,” Bolton-Akpan posited.
He added that a unique dimension of the project is to work with the private sector to attract funding for improved TB services.
“The Private sector provides an additional layer of funding for TB services as part of their corporate social responsibilities and brand reinforcement strategies, which makes for impact and sustainability. Private sector engagement is central, as they can donate equipment, renovate or build TB facilities, provide needed nutritional support to TB patients, support the development of TB-responsive innovations, and donate medications to health facilities to improve current TB intervention efforts” the statement further stated.
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