SFH Holds New Strategic Work Retreat, Celebrates 40 Years

The Society for Family Health, SFH International, begins its new strategic work retreat in Lagos as it celebrates 40years of providing healthcare services to the family.

The 2-day retreat marks the end of the operation of the SFH strategic plan, Facilitating People-Centred Healthcare (FPCH), and heralds the development of a new strategy says, Managing Director, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho in a Statement.

According to Idogho, “the new strategy is for the next generation which will be the basis of the operations of the organisation”.

Leaders from SFH branches in the four Anglophone West African nations—Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria—will be attending the two-day programme.

The Lagos retreat will also commence series of
events that will mark the year-long 40th anniversary celebration of SFH in Nigeria.

During the retreat, says Idogho “the Organisation will take stock of its achievements in the last 40 years and look to a future of more successes in the health care space”.

According to the President of the Board of SFH, Prof. Ekanem Ikpi, “The retreat therefore is an opportunity for us to pause, reflect, unlearn, learn and re-ignite our collective purpose to finish the job we have started, working with our partners

“This anniversary is a unique opportunity to tell our stories and to celebrate the
people we serve – our donors, and our governments”.

Dr Idogho, in the statement equally noted, “This next strategy calls us to leverage our 40 years of experience to rewrite the constructs of the Africa health system, with a clear focus on stronger partnership, forward thinking science and an untiring commitment to transform health outcomes for all.

Some of the dignitaries expected at the programme include the Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA Dr Faisal Shuaib; Lagos and Ekiti states health commissioners, Prof. Akin Abayomi and Dr Oyebanji Filani, and other eminent technocrats and government officials will address participants at the 2-day programme.

SFH is known for contributing substantially to Nigeria’s health sector achievements in the last 40 years.

The Organisation has supported including the reduction of maternal mortality from 1,000 per 100,000 live births in 1985 to 512/100,000 live births in 2021, and infant mortality rate coming down from 132 per 1,000 in 1985, to 54 per 1,000 live births in 2022.
It has also been a leader in family planning, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis,
nutrition, hypertension, diabetes, and COVID among others.