The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said Osun has become a pacesetter in the provision of quality, qualitative, functional and affordable healthcare delivery in the State.
It said Osun has been leading the way in repositioning the health sector in Nigeria as demonstrated by the giant strides the State had taken to revive and redefine healthcare delivery in the State.
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This is even as the global health body lauded the State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola for prioritising the health sector and making it the foundation of effective people-oriented governance.
The WHO representative to Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi, said these when he led other officials of the organisation on a courtesy visit to the Governor at his office at State Government Secretariat, Abere, Osogbo.
Kazadi reiterated the commitment of WHO to strengthen the ties of mutually beneficial partnership between it and the state government saying, “we are very committed to sustaining the excellent collaboration and working relationship.
“Our visit is critical especially now that the country and Osun State in particular has started the Covid-19 mass vaccination campaign.
“Your Excellency, on behalf of WHO, I want to use this opportunity to thank you for honouring the pledge of the “Abuja Declaration” of allocating 15% of the yearly budget to health which WHO also recommends.
“We are aware that Osun has allocated 18% of its annual budget to the health sector in 2021, exceeding the minimum allocation. Osun is one of the few states in the country that was able to implement this best practice.
“I want to assure you that WHO is very committed to sustaining the excellent collaboration and working relationship with the State Ministry of Health and State Primary Health Care Development Board.
“I sincerely appreciate you for the giant strides and tangible achievements in the health sector in Osun and I commend the excellent collaboration and working relationship between the Organisation and the government so far.
“I commend the government’s efforts towards providing sustainable healthcare delivery mechanism through the establishment of Osun Health Insurance Agency which will facilitate the state’s progress towards achieving universal health coverage.
“WHO has been supporting the State authority to strengthen coordination in terms of providing integrated service delivery to achieve the universal health coverage through access delivery, availability of service delivery, health financing cross coordination and stakeholders’ engagements,” he added.
In his remarks, Governor Oyetola extolled WHO for providing global leadership in the effective management of Covid-19 pandemic.
Oyetola who said his adminstration justified the aphorism- “health is wealth”, said the government put health sector on the front burner and will continue to ensure that no one in the State was left behind in accessing adequate, quality and equitable healthcare.
The Governor who reeled out some of the achievements made in the health sector in the last three years of his Administration, said all the concerted efforts in the state health sector are already yielding fruits especially considering that confidence in the public health facilities in the state has been largely restored.
“We shall continue to sustain these initiatives while seeking more windows to deliver sustainable healthcare to our people. In this regards, we will be needing your further support on domesticating task shifting, task-sharing policies, strengthening Data infrastructure and capacity building and more support in the fight against Covid-19, especially in the ongoing mass vaccination,” he added.
