By Ahmad Umar:
Child spacing has been identified as a panacea towards reducing maternal and child mortality by 35 percent, just as Gombe, North East of Nigeria has been identified having the highest maternal mortality rate in the region.
Senior Program Advisor Pathfinder International, Dr. Sakina Aminu Bello disclosed this in Bauchi during a Budget tracking and capacity building workshop on child spacing organised by the Pathfinder International in collaboration with SAIF Advocacy Foundation.
Contributing, the Chairman of the Gombe state Advocacy Working Group on Family Planning, Alhassan Yaya Abdullahi said the percentage of women subscribing to child spacing commodities, is encouraging with increase of about 40 percent of women in the state accepting child spacing services.
He urged stakeholders to take the issue of child spacing seriously like that of immunisation to save lives of women and children in the state.
He also enjoined religious leaders to intensify campaign on child spacing.
“Preach the gospel of child spacing to your followers because people respect the words of religious leaders,” he said.
On her part, Advance Family Planning Intern of Pathfinder International, Hauwa Usman said the objective of the training is to orient participants on Gombe state budgeting process, advocacy entry points and to build the capacity of state local actors on child spacing.
She said the training would also build the capacity of participants to undertake child spacing budget tracking and how to use data around child spacing budget performance scorecards.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Jalo Ali said Gombe state has a transparent budget process because government directed all its ministries, Department and Agencies to incorporate all Stakeholders including civil society organisations in the budget processes of the state.
“Participation of civil society organisations in the budget process in Gombe state is helping the state government to do the needful to the people of the state.
His Economic Planning Counterpart, Steven Ayuba, said engagement of partners and civil society organizations in budget on budget tracking draws the attention of Ministries, Department and agencies on what need to be captured in the state budget.
