Health journalists call for verifiable evidence of improved health outcomes in Nigeria
Nigerian Health journalists have tasked the federal government to ensure a reduction in the country’s health indices to provide the media with evidence of its committment.
President of the Association of Nigerian Health Journalists, ANHEJ, Joseph Kadiri made the call at the 8th Annual Conference of the Association in Abuja, where he tasked the government to tackle inadequate funding, inefficient resource allocation and poor service delivery in the health sector.
Kadiri noted that only when there is verifiable evidence of improvement in the country’s health outcomes, that the media can amplify them before the international community.
He noted that despite the introduction of the Sector Wide Approach, SWAp, shortcomings like limited access to health information and data as well as lack of equal access to healthcare persist.
He maintained that SWAp’s effectiveness relies heavily on the active engagement of various stakeholders, including the media, insisting the media is interested in supporting the government.
”As journalists, we play a vital role in promoting health awareness, education, and advocacy. Through our reporting, we can hold stakeholders accountable for their actions and policies and advocate increased funding for health programs.
”ANHeJ wants verifiable evidence of a reduction in Nigeria’s health indices, so we can amplify them before the international community, we are interested in supporting the federal government and development partners to amplify health successes’.’
