As part of efforts to boost healthcare delivery, the Ekiti State
Government in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology has launched the Governance innovation life cycle challenge
and Accelerator.
The State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Oyebanji
Filani who made this known at the official launch of the programme in
Ado Ekiti, explained that the move was in recognition of healthcare as
the core-driver for human capital development.
Reiterating Governor Fayemi’s commitment to human capital development,
Dr. Filani said that his administration had implemented series of high
impact health interventions tailored towards addressing the needs of
people in the State.
He said, “we have done this by knowing fully well that the investment
in health yields the most valuable returns and I am confident that the
Governance innovation life cycle challenge and Accelerator will be a
great complement to these investments both now and in the future”.
According to him, under the accelerator programme, Quality Care and
Health Security teams in the State Ministry of Health would work with
the MIT Governance Lab as well as its partners Gatefield and
Co-Creation Hub to develop prototypes of governance innovation that
would strengthen state health system and resilience.
The Commissioner said that the State Government decided to work with
partners to put innovation at the core of driving solutions in the
health sector.
He added that the focus is to use human-centered design approach to
develop a set of gender sensitive monitoring tools which allows the
state to track citizens engagement, provide feedback on public health
response efforts and establish a complaints handing system that would
address any healthcare related complaints from members of the
community.
In his remarks, the Associate Director, Innovation at MIT Governance,
Mr. Carlos Centano of said that the Accelerator will implement the
technology of its novel governance innovation framework with the team
for an eight month period.
Mr. Centeno explained that the programme would provide holistic
support from knowledge building through solution development, adding
that at the end of the accelerator phase, the selected prototype would
be developed into a full-fledged technology product.
“The aim of this framework is to improve the provision of public
services, response to the needs of the citizens, increase government
effectiveness and drive positive change in individual and collective
behaviour “, he said.