In an efforts to strengthen accountability in family planning programs and interventions, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) team led by Advocacy and Accountability Specialist (Aqibu Hamisu) paid an advocacy visit to Director General, Kano State Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency (DMCSA).
The purpose of the visit was to brief the DG on the project currently been implemented by AHBN on Strengthening Accountability for Women’s Health and to seek collaboration with agency on tracking the distribution and utilization of family planning commodities and generating stock out data of family planning to support evidence base advocacy engagement.
In his remarks, DG DMCSA- Pharmacist Gali Sule expressed appreciation to AHBN Team for their timely interventions in promoting accountability in women’s health a critical health issues prioritized by the government.
He highlighted the agency’s progress in integrating family planning commodities into the Essential Drugs Revolving Fund (EDRF) to address distribution challenges and enhance the accountability and transparency of these commodities.
Sule also acknowledged the contributions of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which donated family planning commodities worth millions of naira for distribution across the state.
He assured the team that the agency is making concerted efforts to ensure these commodities reach the last mile without logistical hindrances by integrating them into essential drug supplies. This approach simplifies distribution and facilitates the tracking of utilization.
Reflecting on developments since the integration of family planning commodities into the essential drug supply system, he noted that before this initiative, these commodities were not stored in the pharmacy units of Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) and there was no formal record-keeping system for their utilization.
However, with the current integration, the commodities are now properly stored in pharmacies, and records are meticulously maintained.
The DG however highlighted some challenges faced by the agency which include; the sustainability of the FP commodities supply as a big challenge, proliferation of sub-standard and fake FP commodities in the markets as a result of stock out of free commodities.
He then call on the AHBN team to support the agency in advocating for full integration of FP services into medical supply chain at the ministry of health and budgetary allocation of FP for the agency to source out quality and affordable FP commodities and to avoid future stock out of the family planning commodities which are supplied by the supporting partners.
He equally underscore the need for capacity building training of FP and MCH Coordinators on understanding the integration process and how to take full advantage of the system.
In his closing remarks, Sulaiman Jalo- AHBN Knowledge Management Officer thanked the DG for his quick response to the call and reaffirmed AHBN commitments to strengthening the partnership to be well established.
He assured the DG that the advocacy issues raised would be carried forward to relevant stakeholders for further actions.
