 April
26, 2004 - Washington DC, USA.- Nigeria's National
Council of Health, the nation's highest body of health
in the country which groups all Nigerian municipalities,
is embarking on a health sector reform process. To enhance
this process, officials of Nigeria's Council of Health
had the opportunity to hear the experiences of Latin American
countries who had undergone this reform process and from
whose experiences they could benefit.
Laura Frigenti, World Bank Sector Manager for Human
Development in the Africa Region, opened the interactive
session by giving the Nigerian officials the opportunity
to present their areas of work under which they sought
input from the Latin American experts. Nigeria outlined
seven priority areas as a framework for its health reform
process:
- Identifying key reform issues to be addressed by
the health reform program
- Improving stewardship role of government, national
health systems and alignment
- Reducing burden of disease
- Improving health resources and their management
- Improving access to quality health services
- Improving consumer awareness
- Promoting effective partnership with key stakeholders
Directly following the words of Nigeria's officials,
André Medici, Senior Health Specialist for the
Inter American Development Bank, presented "The
Brazilian Health Reform and the Challenge of Decentralization"
via videoconference from Washington DC. In his presentation,
Dr. Medici highlighted the results and challenges Brazil
faced in this process and responded to questions from
Nigerian officials on primary health care, the relation
to a basic cost package, and the universal coverage
of the system.
Nigerian officials then had the opportunity to hear
the Bolivian experience from Dr. Fernando Lavadenz,
World Bank Health Specialist for the Latin America and
Caribbean region and former Director of the Bolivia
Health Sector Reform Unit. Even though Dr. Lavadenz
found himself on mission in Managua, Nicaragua, he was
able to present and take questions from Nigerian officials
on the Bolivian health sector reform process via videoconference.
The session was organized by Stephane Legros, Senior
Public Health Specialist for the World Bank Institute's
Health Unit. The purpose of the session is to kick-start
a series of discussions on the health sector reform
process in Nigeria through which Nigerian country officials
can hear from the experiences and lessons learned from
other countries.
For more information on this activity, contact Stephane
Legros (slegros@worldbank.org),
to learn of future health related GDLN activities involving
the Latin America and Caribbean region, please contact
Carmen Carpio
(ccarpio@worldbank.org).
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