UN Women, Novo Health, sign MoU on rural women's health, empowerment

The United Nations Women (UN Women), on Friday, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a health management organisation, Novo Health Africa, to bring empowerment and better health to Nigerian rural women.

At the short ceremony, which took place in Abuja, UN Women's Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Grace Ongile, said that the partnership will take the form of education, economic empowerment and access to health care services to women and girls.

She added that the partnership will work at reaching women in their host communities, engaging them to know how best to help change their lives and then empowering them through skills acquisitions that will eventually empower them financially and economically to be able to afford good healthcare for themselves and their children.

According to her, when these women have access to good healthcare, the incidences of maternal and child mortality will reduce drastically.

'The specific objectives of the partnership are: for the empowerment and well being of girls and women in Nigeria, to increase mass awareness on gender, empowerment and health related issues for sustainable development and to improve the health and economic conditions of poor and vulnerable groups, especially women in Nigeria,' she said.

Chief Executive of Novo Health, Dr. Dorothy Jeff-Nnamani, in her remarks, said that poor access to good healthcare for the rural woman has only contributed to the vicious cycle of poverty. According to her, the poor expend huge resources on obtaining healthcare and they are further driven into poverty.

'As an organisation, we therefore have the objective of promoting essential health initiatives, building capacity and resources for more efficient health care delivery, contributing to the attainment of the health related MDGs by 2015, providing access to healthcare and building local and international partnerships for timely and wider reach response to health related issues,' she said.

According to Ongile, the initiative aims at improving the health of the rural woman and child and as well make the country fare better in terms of healthy women populace.