Partner Commitment to Zero Maternal Deaths in Northern Nigeria at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25: Accelerating the Promise
Commitment description:Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development (SFPD) was in 2014 to promote development, peaceful co-existence among people of different religions and promote humanitarian action in Nigeria. The Boards of Trustees and Patrons are made up of eminent traditional and religious leaders across the country are chaired by His Eminence the Sultan of Sokoto.
Since 2016, SFPD has collaborated with UNFPA to engage Traditional Leaders on Community-Based Maternal and Perinatal Deaths and Surveillance Review (CBMPDSR) and Girl Child Education in Northern Nigeria to reduce maternal mortality ratio (MMR) at 576 deaths per 100,000 live births (NDHS 2013) and child death. To obtain quality data on maternal and child deaths for planning and monitoring of programmes and strategies; a project was instituted and implemented with commitment and support of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) on Primary Health Care in 54 locations to collect, analyse, and report data from pilot LGAs in all the 19 states and the FCT; aimed at strengthening communities data systems.
The 2018 annual report of the project puts MMR at 2,945/100,000 live births with hemorrhage as main cause of death (40.4%) with 56.2% of the deaths occurring at home. 40% of the deaths occurred during the pregnancy stage with 27.6% involving women aged (25 – 29) years. 69% of deaths recorded in children occurred within the first four weeks of life. Data verification and verbal autopsy results showed that MMR in 2018 was high at 2,945/100,000 live births. It also showed high neonatal and under-five mortality in the region.
In its stride to contribute to accelerating the achievement of the ICPD , SFPD commits to:
• Expand the CBMPDSR project coverage from 54 locations to 110 locations
• Build capacity o on skills for performing verbal autopsy , monitoring and
evaluation of data, •
• Advocacy and sensitization to promote the integration of community and facility based MPDSR.
Mode of engagement:
- Programmatic actionIncrease coverage of and build capacity on maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response in Northern Nigeria Advocacy and sensitization of the states to promote the integration of community and facility-based MPDSR.
Achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive health as a part of universal health coverage (UHC)(3) Zero preventable maternal deaths and maternal morbidities, such as obstetric fistulas, by, inter alia, integrating a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health interventions, including access to safe abortion to the full extent of the law, measures for preventing and avoiding unsafe abortions, and for the provision of post-abortion care, into national UHC strategies, policies and programmes, and to protect and ensure all individuals’ right to bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive rights, and to provide access to essential services in support of these rights.
