ARFH President Emeritus, Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, delivered a speech at the 9th & 10th National Assembly Joint Health Interactive Session in Abuja on Wednesday. Excerpts:
1. Health is wealth. Both health and education are the twin engines for socio-economic growth, improved quality of life, political stability.
2. Indeed, there is no real growth without a healthy population who are creative and innovative. No sustainable Development without tackling disease and malnutrition and no hope for the spread of freedom, democracy and human dignity unless we treat health as a basic human right.
3. When Health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself; art cannot manifest; strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless and intelligence cannot be applied ——
4. It will not be possible to achieve SDG by 2030 by sticky to business as usual.
5. A system-wide paradigm shift is critical to catalyse action for UHC. Currently the national service utilization is 17.6%. We must commit to permanent robust solutions that can ride out the storms to ensure progress is maintained.
6. Whatever the national and global circumstance, we must invest in delivering social and economic returns and eradicate widening inequalities that are catastrophic for economics, political stability, health security and human rights.
We must pursue 4 critical priorities;
• Political Leadership
• Innovative Financing for social impact through blended financing including domestic from non-establish players.
• Meaningful partnership and International collaboration is critical.
• Human capital development and retainability.
