Gyang Bere, Jos
The United Nations Children Fund has urged Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state to declare health data emergency in the state.
UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Mr Bhanu Pathak made the appeal when he paid a courtesy call to the Governor at Government House Rayfield, Jos, Plateau State.
Bhanu said the appeal had become necessary in view of the numerous challenges facing the health sector in the state.
Pathak said, “we have weak cold chain system as only 46 percent of the 325 wards in the state have functional cold chain. Aside that, there is weak data management with more than 10 percent of the health facilities gross under reporting to the National DHIS2 platform and using data for results.
“So, there is the need for his excellency to declare a health data emergency in the state as well as direct the the development of the human resource for health plan with its immediate implementation to address the maldistribution of the human resource for health across the state”
The UNICEF Chief who said his visit was meant to build on the strong partnership that existed between the organisation and the Plateau state Government ,however, told the Governor that a lot still needed to be done to enable them achieve the goal of realizing the rights of children especially the Sustainable Development Goals.
Governor Simon Lalong who was represented by his deputy, Prof. Sonni Tyoden assured the delegation of government’s preparedness to continue to support UNICEF programmes in order to better the lots of children in the state.
He also pledged government readiness to release the necessary counterpart funds to enable them continue with their projects in the state.