National Population Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Health has called for immediate national action to reduce the alarming rate of under-5 deaths in the country.
Alhaji Nasir Kwarra, Chairman of the commission made the call at the official launch of 2019 Verbal and Social Autopsy Study (VASA), in Abuja on Friday.
Verbal and Social Autopsy Study (VASA) is a study on the collation of data on the verbal and social causes of symptoms and deaths of under-5 children.
Kwarra who said that the commission in fulfilling their constitutional duties while working in collaboration with their partners, collated a reliable data on the causes of deaths of under-5 children and urged all to rise in improving the healthcare of the child.
“Under-5 deaths were sampled and it was gathered that the occurrences are seen to be 80 per cent in the North,” he said.
Kwarra reiterated his call on all stakeholders to rise against the ugly development and aim at making sure the country’s infants grow into adulthood.
He however, commended the Ministry of Health and other partners for their support, and promised to continue to provide demographic data for national planning.
Speaking, Ms Uller Mueller, Country Representative, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said that no study was useful until it is disseminated.
Mueller, who was represented by Mr Osarenti Andorin, said that UNFPA would continue to advocate zero maternal death in Nigeria.
She commended National Population Commission and Ministry of Health for a work well done and promised to to continue to support them in reducing under-5 deaths.
Gertrude Odezugo, Manager United States Agency for International Development (USAID), expressed USAID’s joy over the legendary efforts by National Population Commission in providing data that would guide child health programmes.
Dr Yemi Kale, Statistician General, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) commended the National Population Commission for the efforts in designing the document for national planning.
Kale who was represented by Mr Tunde Adebisi described the VASA as a reliable document for all Nigerians including the academia for national planning.
NAN reports that globally, Nigeria is one of the five leading countries that account for half of the under-5 deaths.
Nigeria has under-five mortality rate of over 100 per 1000 live births.
However, the pace remains significantly slower than needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 target of reducing child mortality to 25 death/1,000 live births by 2030.
