The problems in the Nigerian health sector are in most part driven by the combination of limited funding, poor oversight and lack of innovation. In my opinion, the limitations and barriers seen in the health sector can be tackled by innovative leadership much more than increase in funding.
For instance, there are creative ways access to clean water can be improved beyond just drilling boreholes. Would it help if village health centers, market squares also provide people with clean water? Continue reading…
There are quite a good number of people and organizations that send surplus medical supplies to Nigeria. Often times, these supplies are not usable in the intended destinations. The reasons are varied, ranging from damage, to lack of consumables, and inadequate electricity supply.
There are ways to make medical donations work, if the procurement process is done right. Tina Rosenberg shares some insight, via NYT:Making Medical Donations Work.
An Amnesty International mission delegate's fingers covered in oil from an oil spill near Ikarama. This photograph was taken eight months after the spill. Experts who studied video footage of the two spills in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Photograph: Amnesty International UK
Oil company Royal Dutch Shell accepts responsibility for two oil spills in Nigeria’s niger delta between 2008 and 2009 about the same time a UN report reveals (PDF) that decades of oil spills and flagrant disregard for environmental safety in oil-rich Ogoniland region may require at least $1 billion cleanup cost.
The clean-up exercise would be the the world’s largest and costliest, lasting up to 30 years. The report, released by the U.N.’s environmental program, said that drinking water supplies within the oil-rich Niger Delta have been damaged by 50 years of crude oil spills. In some areas drinking water is contaminated so severely it needs immediate action.
Last year a Nigerian federal high court ordered Shell Nigeria to pay 15.4 billion naira (about US$100 million) in special and punitive damages to a Rivers State community for an oil spill that occurred in 1970.
Remi Okunola, lawyer, is a co-founder Nigeria’s indigenous offshore drilling contractor, Seawolf Oil Services Limited. His talk at 2010 TEDxEuston speaks to the kind of mindset and attitude Nigerians, particularly those overseas, must muster to effect changes in Nigeria.
The problems in the Nigerian health sector are in most part driven by the combination of limited funding, poor oversight and lack of innovation. In my opinion, the limitations and barriers seen in the health sector can be tackled by innovative leadership much more than increase in funding.
There are quite a good number of people and organizations that send surplus medical supplies to Nigeria. Often times, these supplies are not usable in the intended destinations. The reasons are varied, ranging from damage, to lack of consumables, and inadequate electricity supply. 