INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ON THE HEALTH CARE OF WOMEN (A CASE STUDY OF LAGOS)

ABSTRACT

The study examined the international Organizations on the health care of women, a case study of Lagos. The study employed the survey design and the purposive sampling technique to select 450 respondents from local government of Agege and Ikeja. A well-constructed questionnaire, which was adjudged valid and reliable, was used for collection of data from the respondents. The data obtained through the administration of the questionnaires was analyzed using the Pearson analysis.

The results revealed that: The status of women’s health in Nigeria are visible. The government has significant impact on women’s health in Nigeria. The efforts of the international organizations on the care of women’s health is potent. The areas where women’s health can be improved in Lagos are visible.

 The study concluded that International Organizations has made significant impact on development of the health care of women. The study suggested: The status of women’s health in Nigeria should be paramount to the government; The government and NGOs should be concern on women’s enlightenment about how to manage a good health and stay safe; International organizations should be precise on the type of care they are providing each time to keep women’s health potent; The women’s health should be improved in areas education; The international organizations need to fully utilize fast information tracker to save retrieval time, allow maximum communication, low treatment default, and timely access to information about women’s health in Nigeria; The government and NGOs need to be positive when it comes to passing information to international organizations for processes improvement about women’s health in Nigeria; The government, international organizations and NGOs need to maintain statuesque within each other so women’s can feel protected about their health in Nigeria.

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

                                                            INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

Women are specially designed, structured and created by God. The manner in which women are biologically and scripturally viewed show their relevance and importance to the world. However, the reverse is the case since women seem to be the most victims in societal issues such as rape, gun violence, ethnical violence, war, political propaganda, domestic abuse, prejudice, domestic violence, harassment among others.

Women who are more prone to many diseases and dangers of the society despite the fact that they   have to go through the reproductive state that should be taken care of by the government in the different conditions that they may find themselves. Many of these women are restricted from good and proper health care during these periods because of their level of financial stability (Abass 2008). 

This is why some women give birth under traditional houses and churches instead of going to hospitals to receive proper care treatment. It ends up been the reason that they are not financially capable to pay the hospital bills and this then gives them complications to their health and make them prone to diseases.

The occurrences of maternal mortality in Nigeria, is going from 814 to 1500 maternal death per 100,000 live births. In the South West which includes Lagos, 165 per 100,000 live births and in the North East, 1,549 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This means that a woman chances of dying at child birth is 1 in every 13. The rate of poverty in the country has also met with health care centers having very bad facilities or not even been functional at all. They lack good and qualified staffs in these centers. With the poor health situation in the country, only 3.9% of the country’s budget is allocated to the health sector in the year 2018 which is even poorer than the other years whereby the health sector is given 4.16% and 4.23% respectively in the years 2016 and 2017 (Arogundade, 2018).  This would not only affect the women in maternal situations but in all aspects of her life where she should be taken care of such as rape and also infected diseases and this would also affect the men and the children because they likewise need to take care of their health.

Women health’s should not be overlooked and also international women movements should take the challenge of improving the intensive care of women in the society. Due to the fact that women are usually disadvantaged in social power, this makes them reduce the access to the necessities of life which includes their health care. With the few women in government offices, lesser attention is given to the women on health and then they are unable to fight for the rights and care of other women (Gonyok, nd).

Also, the unequal power between relationship of men and women. The norms that allows decrease of education among women also contributes to the lack of care to women in the society. With this, many women lack the fundamentals of how they should take care of their health because of their level of education. They themselves make themselves prone to different kinds of health challenges and diseases (WHO 2018).

This situation has therefore raised the awareness and consciousness of international organizations to begin to look into matters that have to do with not only the health of the citizens but the well-being of citizens in general. This, they have done through advocacy, rallies, policy advise conference and especially calling on countries to begin to pay more attention to issues of social security of which health is one of them specifically women’s health, this is due to the potentials that women hold in the society. It is expected that when this happens the health of the nation is preserved.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Due to the fact that most women have been denied access to high governmental positions and the government offices have shown to have lesser women in power and parliamentary offices, women’s issues and problems are usually being thrown under the carpet. The few women who make it there are usually not able to fight for the rights of the other women, most times they fight for their own interests which makes other women in the lower class face their battle themselves. And to think of it, the whole country has to survive on the 3.9 allocation of the country’s budget so women have little access to health care facilities.

This is why many women are faced with difficult resolutions on how to survive in the country. With the country’s situation, many women go into prostitution or drug trafficking just to meet their ends meet and probably take care of their families and this most times put their health in danger and at risk. Many women begin to take drugs and involve themselves in social vices that at the end leads to a bad result.

The reality of it all has been that women in the country have really gone through many issues such as lack of respect in cultural and religious beliefs which affects their health such as genital mutilation in cultural belief among others. This has made many women lose their lives in the process or cause irreversible damage to their bodies. Many women in this process have lost their dignity, place in the society and even their mental health. Therefore, the paper will be researching on the problem which is the lack of healthcare of women in Nigeria.

 

1.3   Objectives of the Study.

The general objective of this research is to examine impact of international organizations in the care of women in Nigeria.

The specific objectives are to:

  1.  examine the status of women’s health in Nigeria.
  2.  appraise the impact of government on women’s health in Lagos.
  3.  analyze the efforts of international organization in the care of women's health in Lagos.
  4.  find out more areas where women's health can be improved in Lagos.

 

1.4    Research Questions

  1. What is the status of women's health in Nigeria?
  2. What is the impact of government on women’s health in Lagos?
  3. What are the efforts of international organizations in the care of women's health in Lagos?
  4. What are the areas where women’s health can be improved in Lagos?

1.5   Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is to show the importance of women’s health in the country and how the international organizations have had an impact in their health care. This project will help to benefit the government and the organizations in getting a data of women that need health care services in the country and how they can work on it.  It will also show the level of how much some international organizations have worked and how much more they can help in the care of women in the state. It will also show the policies that have been made concerning health care of women in the country and better ways to improve those policies. Most importantly, women will be able to know that there are many international organizations that are willing to help give them good health care. Lastly how the international organizations can help to teach the women how to better take care of their health.

 

  1.6      Scope of the Study.

      This research is limited to the International organizations, and women’s health care in Nigeria, which Lagos State will be the case of study between the years of 2010 and 2018.  The international organizations that will looked in this research are: 1. Society for Family Society 2. Family Health International.  Lagos state is the case study for this research because it is seen to be the most populated state in the country which would lead to having large amount of women in the state.

 1.7        Definition of Key Terms

Organizations: This involves a company business, club that is formed for a particular purpose.

International organizations: International organizations are simply organizations with an international recognition that operates within the international law and has a goal to achieve.

Care: This is a deep concern, anxiety, attention showed toward a thing or a person. It shows worry, treatment with responsibility and to look after a thing.

Healthcare: Healthcare can be defined as maintenance and improvement in health of an individual which includes prevention and treatments.

Woman: A woman can be seen as an adult female human that could be a wife, fiancée or girlfriend.

 

 

 

1.8   Chapter Outlay.

Chapter 1 is about the introduction to the subject of international organizations on the health care of women in Nigeria using a case study of Lagos. It is about the Statement of Problem, Objectives of the Study, Research Questions, significance of the study, Methodology and Sources of Data, Scope of the Study- Time frame, Definition of Key Terms and the Chapter Outlay.

Chapter 2 of this project will discuss the literature review of a formal work on this project and likewise the theoretical framework for the project work on the women’s health care.

Chapter 3 of this project is the using of quantitative method in the collection of data for the research study. It clarifies on the research design, population of the study, method of data collection, sample and sample technique, instrument of data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability of the research instrument.

Chapter 4 is about the analysis of the data been obtained and will be in correlation with the objectives of this research.

Chapter 5 is the summary, conclusions and the recommendations of the project research.