Tinubu's Aide Urges State To Found Health Innovations To Reduce Maternal Deaths

The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Public Health, Udurotas Anwuka, has urged state governments to invest in locally developed health innovations to reduce maternal and newborn deaths across Nigeria. She made the call at the Nigerian Governors Forum and Grand Challenges Nigeria Annual Meeting and Innovation Exchange, where stakeholders discussed ways to scale up research-driven health care solutions. ANWUKA disclosed that 10 Nigerian-led projects had received seed funding of up to 60 million Naira each, stressing the need for sustainable funding and government support to move successful innovations beyond pilot stages. This initiative is critical. I mean, Nigerians are the best researchers anywhere, everywhere in the world. And the question is, how can we get that intelligence and brilliance of the Nigerian mind into solutions that would reach mother and children? The focus of Grand Challenges Nigeria this year has been on mothers and newborns. And so the office of the vice president, his excellency, actually, the vice president, And then we launched this Grand Challenges Nigeria. exactly two years ago, and he believes that, of course, even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu believes that Nigeria's greatest asset is its people, and we can only harness that when we start early enough looking at the mother and the newborn child. So what we're seeing within these two years, and congratulations to the Grand Challenges of this Nigeria team, is that 10 researchers have been given up to 60 million Naira seed funding for their innovative ideas. But we don't want that to end at the shelf. We want it to get to the mother and child that needs them. And what that determines is having institutions that will adopt these innovations that they've been able to come up with. And so we've seen, for instance, in Plateau State, they're able to do a birth defect detection early enough. In Oyo, there's sepsis, how to detect sepsis early in children. We've seen Imo, the Mama Link, How they've been able to link. ambulatory services to mothers and children in reserved and underserved areas and in grassroots areas. So these are the kind of connections that we want to see. And so for the meeting today, we're having adoption institutions meeting with the innovators so that they can be able to scale these innovative ideas. We want to be able to see where Nigerian research is critical for that. And this is what the Renewed Hope Agenda is about. New ways, better ways, faster ways of delivering results. at the grassroots and this is the beginning of that. Speaking of the grassroots, are there plans to collaborate with traditional rulers, rural areas and be able to spread? Absolutely. We just completed the joint annual review of the Nigerian Health Sector Renewal Investments Initiative yesterday actually. It was a three-day program. In attendance were traditional leaders. In attendance were policymakers, private sectors. Again, we recognize that traditional leaders, our religious leaders, are the voice, the trusted voice of the people. And they're the ones to carry this message across to the grassroots, to the household level, to the family level. So they're partners in this. It's a co-creation process. And we analyze where we're doing right and what needs to change. But I dare say that a lot... has gone on in this administration in terms of health improving the health of mothers and children newborn children and what Grand Challenges is doing here today is excellent because it is one of the key steps to ensuring that our solutions are innovative that we're finding better and newer ways to solve for the Nigerian health related challenges that we see. Other stakeholders, including the Gates Foundation, Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, and Nigerian Governors Forum, called for stronger partnerships to translate research into practical healthcare solutions. Uh, I'm... We are trying to, in a sense, crowdfund innovations in health and development. We want to locally define the health challenges that we need to solve with innovation and locally pull together All of those researchers and innovators who can help us solve these challenges, give Nigerians better health and reduce the incidence of mortality and morbidity. So Grand Challenges was, Grand Challenges Nigeria was established in 2024. Two years later we have funded researchers who are innovating in maternal, neonatal and child health. Thank you. They are completing their proof of concept and the next question we're asking is what does it take to take these innovations to scale? We have brought together government funders, Okay, I'm Dr. Chine Kuori, Head of Health, Nigeria Governor's Forum Secretariat. See All right, thank you very much. On behalf of the Director General of the Nigerian Governors Forum you Secretariat, we just gave a speech about the importance of this event. And this is an event where we are showcasing some innovations next from researchers across Nigeria and also states from within the Nigerian states. And I was saying that one of the critical things time. that we should know is that beyond innovation, there is this. need to see that such innovations are implementable and for this to happen there are some critical factors that have to be it has to be technically sound it has to be relevant there has to be evidence backing the effectiveness of these interventions then they have to be affordable and sustainable and it can be anchored on existing institutional arrangements in respective state governments So We as Nigeria Governors Forum, partnering with the Grand Challenges Nigeria and other partners, are saying that Nigeria does not lack talent. you We have great ideas but the question is how do we move these great ideas from just being innovations very to be mainstreamed into systems, to be scaled and to be utilized to impact the life of the woman much. and child in Nigeria for better health outcomes. So that is the whole essence of what we are doing here today. We have institutional adopters in the room, we have other stakeholders who are interested in the great work that is being done by these researchers and we look forward to having it scaled, adopted and scaled across Nigerian states. Thank you. As is to play a facilitatory role by ensuring that the platforms for showcasing these best practices, the relevant stakeholders and the state teams are in place. And of course, we are also there to provide institutional support with regards to conducting documentation, verification exercises and any form of technical assistance. Potential states might need. However, the decision to adopt and scale ultimately lies with the state governments.