By IJEOMA UKAZU
To deepen the knowledge of Civil Society and the media on Epidemic Preparedness Response, EPR the Legislative Initiative For Sustainable Development, LISDEL has said that the move is geared towards improving EPR policy and financing landscape in Lagos state.
Speaking at an event held in Lagos, the Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor, Prevent Epidemic Project, Juliana Abude-Aribo said part of the objective of the event is to acquaint the civil society and media with the health accountability framework as well as strengthen their capacity to effectively utilize it in order to increase awareness on Epidemic Preparedness Response in Lagos State.
According to her; ” The health sector is critical and the government need to apply their roles on epidemics to ensure that Lagos State is well prepared and that the response is top notch so as to prevent public health emergencies basically. For the media, also the same thing applies, because the CSOs and media are custodians of accountability. They need to understand all of these and be well equipped with the knowledge to hold both the executives, the legislature and of course themselves accountable for epidemics preparedness and response in Nigeria.
“We need to ask ourselves questions like: What are the structures in place for epidemics preparedness and response, are they enough. What else do we need to do right. The Government also need to play their roles effectively in ensuring that the country is prepared and in particular, Lagos states for another wave of COVID-19 or Ebola or cholera or any other epidemics.”
Abude-Aribo added that LISDEL has the mandate to work with the federal government and also at state level to improve preparedness and response on epidemics and we will be working with the executive and legislative arm civil society organisation, media, private sectors and stakeholders to tackle epidemics or public health emergencies generally.
Contributing, Chairman Steering Committee, Lagos Civil Society Participation for Development, (formerly Lagos State Civil Society Partnership), LACSOP Barr. Ayo Adebusoye said, the climate is actually showing us the importance of being prepared for any eventuality.
He said, ” We saw since last year that COVID has had a huge impact on the economy. So it’s a critical aspect that we make sure we put all finances and funding to ensure that our facility is fully functioning to full capacity.
” As a country, we should do proper research, and be able to provide vaccines for people. We should not always wait like beggars monies from abroad before we can actually deal with health. So health security measures, we should own our health system and better the lives of Nigerians.”