The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has activated the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, with the government adopting a new implementation roadmap and inaugurating a task team to drive the programme across the territory.
The Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environment Secretariat (HSES), Dr Adedolapo Fasawe, stated this on Friday at the closing ceremony of the five-day FCT MAMII Activation and Co-creation Workshop and community outreach organised by the SWAp Coordination Office in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and HSES in Abuja.
Fasawe said the activation was a major step towards addressing the factors responsible for maternal and newborn deaths in the FCT, stressing that the administration would not accept the death of any woman from preventable causes.
She said stakeholders had spent the five-day workshop reviewing data, identifying bottlenecks, mapping available resources and working with women and communities to develop solutions suited to the peculiar needs of the FCT.
According to her, the outcome was the FCT MAMII Implementation Suite, which provides a roadmap covering maternal health targets and dashboard, service delivery, community engagement, data and accountability, and resource mobilisation.
“This suite was not written in an office. It was co-created by us, and so, its success depends on all of us,” she said.
Fasawe disclosed that the implementation plan would strengthen primary healthcare centres, availability of commodities, referral systems and emergency obstetric care, while assigning specific roles to religious leaders, civil society organisations, Ward Development Committees, Village Development Committees and traditional rulers.
She also inaugurated the FCT MAMII Task Team, comprising officials from HSES, the Area Councils, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), development partners, CSOs, religious bodies and traditional institutions.
The task team, she said, would coordinate implementation across BHCPF-supported facilities, strengthen stakeholder coordination, monitor and report progress, build capacity, mobilise resources and lead community engagement and advocacy.
“Let me be clear: This is not an honorary committee. This is a delivery team. The lives of mothers and newborns in FCT depend on what we do from today,” Fasawe said.
Earlier, the National Coordinator of MAMII, Dr Dayo Adeyanju, said the FCT was the 34th state to undergo the MAMII activation process, following the initiative’s rollout across states with a significant share of Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden.
Adeyanju, who conveyed greetings from the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the initiative was in line with President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to ensuring that no woman dies while giving birth and that every child survives beyond the age of five.
He said the five-day exercise had enabled the team to identify specific factors contributing to maternal deaths in the FCT, including delays in seeking care, socio-cultural barriers, transportation difficulties, financial constraints and gaps in awareness.
Adeyanju said field assessments showed that some women attended antenatal care but failed to return to health facilities for delivery, opting instead for traditional birth attendants.
“We reviewed about five or six cases, most of them died at the traditional birth attendant,” he said, adding that some of the women had attended as many as eight antenatal care visits before dying after delivering outside formal health facilities.
He also expressed concern over short intervals between pregnancies and inadequate uptake of family planning services.
Adeyanju said MAMII would provide women with access to a range of interventions, including health insurance, emergency transportation, maternal delivery kits and referral for Caesarean sections where required under the programme.
He urged pregnant women to make full use of available public health services, particularly antenatal and delivery services.
“Why should any woman die?” he asked, stressing that government-supported services could only prevent maternal deaths when women accessed them at the appropriate time.
The Chairman of the FCT Council of Chiefs and representative of the Etsu of Abaji, Alhaji Dr Sule Salihu Kabamba, pledged the support of traditional rulers across the six Area Councils to the implementation of MAMII.
Kabamba urged decision-makers to give prompt attention to maternal healthcare and called on Area Council chairmen to provide the necessary support and incentives for effective implementation.
He said traditional rulers would intensify community sensitisation and encourage husbands to give their wives unconditional permission to seek medical care.
“We shall preach to the husbands to disabuse their minds of this cultural belief while delivering. Any condition that is not in line with the medical condition should be removed completely,” he said.
Representing the Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Muyi Aina, Dr Nana Sandah Abubakar assured pregnant women and nursing mothers of the agency’s commitment to ensuring safe pregnancy, delivery and survival of children beyond five years.
She said NPHCDA would support community-based health workers, ensure the availability of medicines and equipment at primary healthcare centres and strengthen the capacity of health workers to provide quality care and make timely referrals.
Also, Dr William Nkechoko, representing the Director-General of NHIA, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, said the authority would ensure that women had financial access to quality maternal and neonatal healthcare.
He identified General Hospital Kuje, Gwako, National Hospital Abuja, Federal Medical Centre Jabi and Kubwa among facilities available for referral and comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care.
Nkechoko urged pregnant women to attend antenatal care as required and make use of referral facilities whenever their conditions exceeded the capacity of primary healthcare centres.
Representing the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS), Mr Kabir said the FCT had been onboarded into the emergency transportation system, with ambulances mapped to transport pregnant women from their homes to health facilities during emergencies.
He said women in rural areas could access the service by dialling 3581.
Development partners also pledged continued support for the implementation of MAMII in the FCT.
The Society for Family Health, represented by Dr Dayo Aboh Yusuf, said it had commenced support for MAMII in the FCT and would continue to contribute to the implementation of the jointly developed interventions.
Similarly, Ijeoma Okongwu, representing the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), pledged continued support for capacity building of healthcare workers and strengthening of data systems to improve maternal and perinatal health outcomes.
The Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), represented by Dr Salima Johnson, also committed to supporting the programme, saying its existing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health interventions were aligned with the MAMII plan.
Prof Lida of Ladea Global Health said the organisation’s Safer Birth Bundle of Care programme was closely aligned with MAMII and would support government efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Representing the Governors’ Forum, Prof Latiwo said the forum would support MAMII through improved healthcare workforce utilisation, equipment, transportation and stronger accountability mechanisms.
He said the objective was to ensure that no mother died from preventable causes.
Fatima Galadima of Jhpiego, however, identified manpower shortages and poor supervision as major challenges confronting primary healthcare facilities in the FCT.
She said Jhpiego’s ongoing interventions, including training of community health workers and strengthening of Basic and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care, were aligned with MAMII, but stressed that workforce gaps must be addressed for the initiative to achieve sustained results.
At the ceremony, a beneficiary also testified to receiving support for the settlement of medical bills following complications after childbirth, expressing gratitude to the government and partners for the intervention.
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