Date: 2017-11-28 11:42:00 ID: 1789
From 22 to 23 November 2017, in Benin City au Nigeria, there was a WAHO-supported workshop on the Women Health and Action Research Centre (WHARC) research project, within the framework of the Innovation for Mother and Child Health in Africa (IMCHA) initiative. This research project, funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) seeks to improve access by pregnant women to quality antenatal care by proposing supply and demand innovations.
The workshop brought together about 50 participants from the Federal and Ministry of Health, the Edo State government, representatives of beneficiaries, the media and researchers from Tanzania Bauchi State. The objective of this workshop was to share, validate the results of the situation analysis, and identified the innovations to be implemented. A WAHO team comprising Prof Sombié Issiaka, Principal Professional for research and health information and Dr Johnson Ermel, Assistant Professional for research participate in this meeting.
During the workshop, the researchers presented the results obtained from the primary study on the level of current utilisation of health services by pregnant women and the factors underlying the utilisation and non-utilisation of these services. It came out that problems relating to accessibility and quality of healthcare were determinant factors. The evaluation of health facilities within the project catchment area noted that most of these facilities did not comply with the technical references defined by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The workshop also enabled the sharing of experiences from research work with a view to improving access to health services by women in Tanzania and in Bauchi State in the northern Nigeria. The interactions led to the discussion and identification of innovative interventions to be implemented in the next two years with a view to improving the utilisation of health services. Finally, to ensure better ownership of the results by local and national policy makers, participants proposed strategies for sharing and disseminating results.
At the closing ceremonies, various stakeholders committed themselves to working together to improve access and quality maternal healthcare in the Edo State of Nigeria.