An Emergency Transport Scheme piloted in four northern states by Health Partners International has helped to transport 19,000 pregnant women in the north to health facilities in emergency situations since 2009. The project with funding from the MacArthur Foundation is implemented in states of Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe and Zamfara but begs for a nationwide implementation. Findings show that 1,592 communities were reached with a population coverage of 4.3 million.He said “It is a life saving strategy for pregnant women in emergency situation because there is need to address long distance to health facilities, high cost of commercial transport and inadequate transport services.” According to Sokpo, programme has been successful as within the last four-years they have been able to achieve the targets that they set and over 19,000 women were transported to facilities against their 5,000 target. “The institutional capacity built with NURTW has shown the level of enthusiasm which the project has been able to fuse into them to take the project beyond the four states.
Source: Leadership Online
