The Founder of Vickyheldan Empowerment Foundation, Dr Victory Njoku, has called for stronger implementation of policies on women’s health to reduce maternal deaths and improve access to healthcare across Nigeria.
Njoku made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, stressing that the country had several policies on women’s health but needed to translate them into action.
She said more intentional and systemic efforts were required to address gaps in maternal healthcare and ensure that women received the care they needed.
According to her, the challenge goes beyond developing policies, as effective execution remains critical to achieving meaningful improvements in women’s health.
“What it is, is that we’re not making systemic efforts to see how we can be more intentional about women’s health because it’s not just making policies.
“We have a lot of policies in place, but we are not executing. Execution action plan is the way forward,” she said.
The founder also called for greater community engagement to improve access to healthcare interventions, particularly for women living in rural communities.
She said communities should be actively involved in the design and delivery of healthcare interventions because they understood their populations and specific challenges.
“We should see how we can create a partnership between the community itself because the communities, they know themselves. They understand their numbers, they understand their challenges.
“So, you should engage the communities. Community engagement is key”.
Njoku also stressed the need for stronger collaboration between government, non-governmental organisations and other agencies to address Nigeria’s healthcare challenges.
She said government could not tackle the challenges alone and needed to work with organisations with the expertise and resources to implement interventions at the community level.
“That is why they need to collaborate with NGOs and agencies”.
Njoku said such partnerships, supported by adequate funding, would strengthen the capacity of organisations to implement healthcare programmes and extend interventions to underserved communities.
She reaffirmed the commitment of Vickyheldan Empowerment Foundation to promoting women’s health and empowerment through partnerships and community-focused interventions.
