NGO moves to reduce maternal, prenatal death rate in Taraba
By Terna Chikpa, Jalingo
The Maigodiya Centre for Youth Development, a non governmental organisation, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development, through Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement project, on Saturday ended a two days training for Principal Medical Officers of hospitals in Taraba to reduce the maternal and prenatal death rate in the state.
Our correspondent reports that the two days programme also trained Monitoring and Evaluation Officers, on Maternal and Prenatal Death Surveillance and Response, Maternal Death Surveillance and Response, as well as Prenatal Death Surveillance and Response reporting skills.
Mr Aminu Usman, the Project Manager of MCYD told participants at the training in Jalingo that the idea was to tackle the continued increase in number of death per 1000 birth in Nigeria especially in the North-East region that comprises Taraba, Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Bauchi and Borno states which seems to be the most vulnerable.
Usman also disclosed that the SCALE project was aimed at Health budget increase and performance, hence, the training on reporting tools for PMO’s and M&E Officers in all Health Care Facilities in the 16 local government areas of Taraba State.
“The objective of this training is to achieve full implementation of MPDSR in Taraba State through strengthening capacity of the PMOs and the Hospital M&E officers on timely and accurate reporting of maternal and prenatal death. The reported data from the health facilities on MPDSR committee will provide accountability for results and compel decision-makers to give the problem of maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths due attention and response in form of budget allocation and releases.
“Our target is to develop capacity to accurately and timely generate MPDSR data that can be used to update our advocacy agenda and other strategic engagements, establish a framework to assess the burden of maternal deaths, stillbirths and neonatal deaths, including trends in numbers and causes of death. We target to generate information about modifiable factors contributing to preventable death, and to use the information to guide action in order to prevent similar deaths in the future and Promote confidentiality and a blame free culture in the society,” Usman explained.
Meanwhile, Mr.Vahyalla Musa, the Lead Facilitator explained at the event that MPDSR was a key intervention for improving maternal, prenatal, and neonatal survival in understanding the number and causes of deaths, the systematic analyses of overall mortality trends as well as events and contributing factors leading to individual deaths which can be identified as health system barriers and inspire local solutions to prevent it.
He also explained that, Maternal and prenatal death surveillance and response was an essential quality improvement intervention which permits the identification, notification, quantification and determination of causes and avoidability of maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirth with the goal of orienting the measures necessary for their prevention.
