Admin|20 March 2016|6:47am
Health is a social service with very wide scope. For Cross River State government to effectively reachout to all its citizens especially at this time of economic crunch, the need for partners and donors support in the state cannot be overemphasised.
However, if activities of donors and partners working in the health sector is not properly coordinated, then the goals of this administration in the health sector will not be achieved. This is the main reason why the Hon. Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mrs. Inyang Asibong and the DG Cross River State Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr. Mrs. Betta Edu deemed it fit to cordinate all partners efforts in the health sector by bringing them under one roof to deliberate on more productive ways of engaging with the state.
The One Day Inaugural Meeting which was the first in a series of meetings to come, began with an address by the Honourable Commissioner Dr. Asibong, who thanked the partners for attending the meeting and also thanked them for their contributions so far to the state. She reaffirmed government's resolve to work closely with all partners in the state and provide counterpart funding where necessary. She called for synergy to make the health sector more effective. She inform them of the state health plan which donors must fit into, rather than run parallel programs.
Also speaking in her keynote address, the DG of CRS Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr. Edu, also thanked the partners for their support to CRS. However she decried the level of uncoordinated activities of partners in the state. She recounted that most partners go straight into the community without working with any relevant government structure. She stated that most partners do not have any clearly mapped out exist plan, as such, after they have invested many years in the state, there is no hope for sustainability of project since they did not properly hand over the programs to the government or the communities where the served. She stressed on community ownership and participation as a great medium to ensure sustainability of projects.
Finally Dr. Betta Edu called on all partners working in the health sector to submit to government a template of where the work in CRS, what projects they undertake, activities plan, goals, objectives, time-lines, exit plan and funding/other resources available for the projects this will aid for donor mapping and avoid duplication of activities.
Presentations were also made by WHO, CUSO and other speakers. There was intense deliberations between partners and the government on more effective ways of synergy to avoid duplication of partners activities in the state. Next meeting is billed to hold soon.
Charles Ekanem
Media & Publicity Aide to the DG, CRSPHCDA
