By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
FIRST Lady Esther Lungu has urged First Ladies in Africa to use their influential positions to lobby for healthcare finance, especially for the adolescents.
Speaking during the 19th OAFLA Ordinary General Summit in a speech read for her by Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya, Ms Lungu said First Ladies should use their positions to tap into resources in the private
sector and help improve healthcare systems in their countries.
Ms Lungu said the First Ladies had a comparative advantage to facilitate health investments from the public and private sectors due to their influential positions as spouses of heads of State.

LUNGU

She also said the private sector should take an interest to invest in health because the productive workforce was in adolescents.
This is according to a statement issued by the First Secretary for Press and Tourism at the Zambian Embassy in Ethiopia Inutu Mwanza.
Ms Lungu also said Zambia considered adolescents as a key population with a triple return on investment that was harnessed by improving the health status of young people across the country.
Through proper healthcare systems, the First Ladies could bring prominence to adolescents’ sexual reproductive health rights and HIV, including expected services.
Ms Lungu has been a strong leader in advocacy for reproductive healthcare facilities.
This year alone, she engaged the private sector that has pledged to construct a maternity wing at the University Teaching Hospitals (UTH).
The theme of the OAFLA General Assembly is ‘Building on the 15 years of engagement to harness the demographic dividend of Africa through promoting the needs of adolescents and their access to youth-friendly health services’