Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Primary Health Care Development Agency, 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 an international retreat of the Society for Family Health (SFH) in Lagos, which starts on Monday, 30 January 2023.

The 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 for the next generation which will be the basis of the operations of the organisation.

“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,” said the Managing Director, Dr Omokhudu Idogho, in a statement from the organisation.

The retreat, which is to be held in the Lagos Sheraton Hotel, is also a precursor event to the year-long 40^th anniversary celebration of SFH, during which 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.

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

“This 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…” said Prof Ekanem Ikpi Braide, President of the board of SFH.

SFH prides itself for contributing substantially to Nigeria’s health sector achievements in the last 40 years, 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.

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