Nasiru Yusuf Ibrahim

A groundbreaking research study conducted by Professor Hadiza Galadanci and her team at the Kano State Surveillance for Evidence and Policy has shed new light on the critical factors contributing to maternal and child mortality in Kano State.

KANO FOCUS reports that Professor Galadanci was speaking at a technical meeting on the outcome of the Kano State Surveillance for Evidence and Policy (KASSEP) project which took place on Monday 13th January, 2025 at ACEPHAP Conference room.

Professor Galadanci called for the immediate implementation of these research-driven solutions to break the cycle of maternal and child mortality in the state.

According to her, Kano State like most other regions in the country faced several healthcare challenges which included high maternal and child mortality and difficulties in accessing healthcare, particularly in rural areas.

Giving an overview of the KASSEP project, Professor Galadanci further stated that the top causes of the maternal and child mortality deaths are the social and cultural factors that interplay with the systemic challenges that Kano State faced, which are also not well characterized, and as such design of interventions to reduce maternal deaths and stillbirths was hampered.

The ACEPHAP Director disclosed that it was these challenges that the KASSEP study sought to address with a view to proffering solutions to the rising cases of maternal and child mortality in Kano State.

On the method used for the success of the project, Professor Galadanci stated that the study employed a mixed methods approach to establish a sample registration system (SRS) that would be named Kano State Surveillance for Evidence and Policy (KASSEP) in the LGAs of Kano state.

She said a representative sample of clusters was drawn randomly to ensure representativeness across senatorial districts, urban and rural settings.

She explained that establishing the Sample Registration System would enable the study to engage in both a retrospective study (maternal deaths and stillbirths that occurred within the last 12 months before the study state date) and prospective study (maternal deaths and stillbirths that occurred with two years after the study start date). She added that the 2022 World Health Organization’s Verbal Autopsy Instrument was adapted for the study for both the retrospective and prospective components of this study.

Professor Galadanci added that the objectives of the study were to understand the causes and the contextual factors associated with maternal deaths and stillbirths to provide Kano State with insights on program/policy intervention.

She also said it would afford the government of Kano State the opportunity to utilize the findings of this research to speedily implement policy/actions that specifically accelerate the reduction of preventable maternal deaths by intensifying the scale of proven low-cost interventions via its structures and institutions (whether these be publicly or privately-owned). Increased quality of care of the mother and baby-in-conception dead to accelerate the reduction of preventable stillbirths and understand the factors and drivers of (the lack or underdeployment of) women’s agency in so far as these aggravate adverse maternal outcomes and deaths and use this evidence to shape policy and programs to drive reduction in preventable maternal deaths.

A nursing mother with her baby

It is hoped that the Kano State Government would use the findings to reduce the maternal and child mortality in the state.

In her address, the KASSEP project coordinator, Dr. Fatima Mahmoud explained that the objective of the technical meeting was to discuss the current stage of the Kano State Surveillance for Evidence and Policy (KASSEP) project, highlighting progress, challenges, and future plans. It would also to discuss how the traditional community structure was leveraged in establishing a surveillance and tracking system for Maternal Child Health indicators as well as present KASSEP data management and dashboards and to also examine the relationship between KASSEP’s maternal and stillbirth tracking and maternal and child nutrition, identifying opportunities for integration and improved health outcomes.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf thanked the KASSEP team under the leadership of Professor Galadanci for a job well done. He assured that the Kano State Government would set up a technical committee to study the findings with a view to ensuring full implementation.

He said to show Kano State Government seriousness and commitment to healthcare delivery, it recently paid its counterpart founding to the tune of 500 million naira to UNICEF.

In his goodwill message, the Chairman of the Governing Council of North West University, and former Deputy Governor of Kano State, Professor Hafiz Abubakar described the KASSEP project as a right step in the right direction, but advised that as a nutritionist, he would support the position of His Highness, the Emir of Kano who insisted that nutrition must be added in the research work.

He said Nutrition remained the backbone of child growth, saying that if the child is not fed properly beginning at the age of two, there would be serious problem in later life, “that is, if the child is lucky to survive the feeding imbalance consequences.”

Others who spoke at the meeting were: Dr. Iman Warshu, who spoke on Leveraging Community Leadership for Sustainable Impact, Malam Abdulrahman Ibrahim who introduced the Data Visualization Platform of the Project, Professor Baba Maiyaki Musa who spoke on utilizing KASSEP platform for Nutritional Surveillance and Improvement and Professor Salisu Maiwada Abubakar who spoke on behalf of the Nutrition Data Team.

Source: BUK Bulletin