Gov Zulum Pledges Full Usage of NDHS Report, Support To NPC, Development Partners in Borno
Governor Professor Babagana Unara Zulum of Borno state has vowed to ensure full and quality usage of 2018 National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) Report prepared by the National Population Commission (NOC) in Borno state.
He also pledged continuous support to the commission in conducting survey data document that will be used to provide socio-economic services to the people of the state, especially, on health, water, education and other sectors across the state.
The governor stated this Thursday at the official launch of the 2018 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) Report for Borno State Dissemination of the National Population Commission in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) at Barwee Luxury Siutes, Maiduguri.
Represented by the SSG, Usman Jidda Shuwa who was also represented by the Permanent Secretary, Monitoring and Evaluation, Governor's Office, Alhaji Dahiru Shettima. He promised to support NPC, development partners and other implementers to achieve their mandate while calling on all the stakeholders to go through the report and plan well for quality and standard implementation of the data document.
Zulum also appreciated the roles of the development partners and assured them that his government will continue to partner with them for quality delivery of services to the people of the state.
The National Chairman of NPC, Barrister Bumbola Salu-Hundeyin said currently, the launch of the NDHS is going across the country by all the states and FCT Abuja, noting that, beside conducting national census, NPC also carry out other surveys for health, education, water and other services to guide Government in it's Policy making plans in providing services to Nigerians.
She said the 2018 NDHS is the 6th NDHS conducted in Nigeria since 1990 under the facilitation of agencies like WHO, Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation, UNFPA, The Global Fund and USAID.
Represented by the Federal Commissioner, NPC, Borno State, Barrister Isa Buratai, added that the survey provided an up to date estimates on basic demographic and health indicators in the entire country.
According to her, towards accomplishing the survey report, NPC worked in close collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) under the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) across the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
She explained that a total of 41,821 women of 15-49 age group in 40,427 households and 13,311 men of 15-59 age group in one third of the samples households were interviewed, representing a response rate of 99% of women and 99% of men.
The National Chairman said NPC is proud to say that new innovative approaches were used in the conduct of the 2018 NDHS such as, the anthropometry processes was improved to collect high quality height and weight measurements from children and women.
A new biometric checklist was introduced to ensure that no important tasks were missed while interviews also returned to households to re-measure children for flagged vases and random re-measurement for data quality checks were carried out.
She noted that these new improved processes piloted in Nigeria has been adopted as standard procedures in DHS surveys by other nations especially in Africa.
While other innovation was the inclusion of the DHS Program of Disability Module in the 2018 NDHS which allowed the commission to collect information on disability status of Nigerians for the first time in history of demographic surveys.
"The result shows a significant outcome of 2% women and 2% men of 15 and above age group have difficulty or cannot function in at least one domain of disability due to seeing, hearing, communicating, remembering on concentrating, walking or clothing or climbing steps and washing all over the body or dressing up.
"9% of women and 10% of men have some difficulty n at least one domain. The date on disability will be of significance to the Social Development Statistics in planning for the well-being of persons living with disabilities in the country.
"Nigeria also piloted genotype testing of children ages 6-59 months for sickle cell disease for the first time in a DHS survey anywhere in the world. Genotype testing was carried out but in a sub sample of more than 11,000 children. 20% of the children have the sickle cell trait.
"The overall prevalence of sickle cell disease in Nigerian children ages 6-59 months is 1.3%.The prevalence of sickle cell disease is above 2.0% in six states. Oyo 2.8% , Lagos 2.7% , Osun 2.6% ,Kano 2.4% , Kogi 2.4% , and Taraba 2.2%", Bimbola said.
She added that the practical value of the data contained in the 2018 Nigeria NDHS Report is enormous and NPC have collectively worked very hard to generate and present it to Nigerians today while appreciating the contributions of the development partners for the success story.
Earlier, the State Director, NPC, Borno State, Alhaji Bukar Gajiram welcomed and thanked the state government, development partners and participants to the NDHS Report launch.
Borno State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aliyu Kwaya Bura represented by State Public Health Director, MOH, Dr. Lawi Auta Mshelia pledged full implementation and usage of the report to deliver quality health services to the people as the ministry has the mandate to provide quality and standard healthcare delivery services to the people.
He also promised to work hand in hand with all the development partners and other facilitators to ensure quality health care delivery services to the citizens of the state while emphasizing the responsibility of the ministry to public health services.