NPC commences 2024 VASA survey in A’Ibom, seeks residents’ cooperation

NPC commences 2024 VASA survey in A'Ibom, seeks residents’ cooperation

The National Population Commission (NPC) has initiated the 2024 Nigeria Verbal and Social Autopsy (VASA) study in Akwa Ibom to collect essential maternal and child mortality data.

The Federal Commissioner, Akwa Ibom, National Population Commission, Chief Benedict Ukpong, disclosed this during a press conference in Uyo on Thursday.

Ukpong urged Akwa Ibom people to cooperate with the VASA team that would be coming to interview them on the causes of death of children under age five and for women of reproductive age.

He said that the survey is a follow-up to the 2023/2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) that was concluded in May this year.

“We will be going back to the NDHS households to ask for information that will help the government understand and plan to address the biomedical and social causes of death of children under age 5 and women of reproductive age.

“The study will collect essential data on both maternal and child mortality, focusing on the social and related health factors that contribute to these tragic losses.

“This information will empower decision makers to address the underlying issues that lead to these deaths and will ultimately inform policies aimed at improving maternal and child health in the state and beyond,” Ukpong said.

Ukpong said that the field study would be undertaken across 24 out of the 31 local government areas of the state.

The federal commissioner said that the trained data collectors would visit households to conduct interviews with family members, gathering information that will help to understand the circumstances surrounding maternal and child deaths.

He urged the public to cooperate with the interviewers who would be coming to them, stressing that the study is not a population census. 

The federal commissioner commended the Federal Ministry of Health, Akwa Ibom State Government, and all other partners for supporting the study.

In his remarks, the NPC Director in Akwa Ibom, Mr Emmanuel Edem, urged the media to sensitise the people to welcome interviewers that will be coming for the survey.

Edem added that the exercise was to find out the causes of death and how to tackle and reduce these causes by the government.

In his goodwill message, the Commissioner for Information, Mr Ini Ememobong, urged Akwa Ibom people to cooperate with the interviewers to make the survey a huge success. 

Ememobong, represented by  Mr Edem Okon, Director of Strategy in the ministry said the State Government was fully in support of the VASA survey in the state.

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