Country Focus: Nigeria

Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria

Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded social and behavior change (SBC) project designed to increase the practice of priority health behaviors in the areas of malaria; maternal, newborn, and child health, including nutrition (MNCH+N); family planning/reproductive health; and tuberculosis. The project works closely with Federal and State Ministries of Health and other USAID implementing partners.

In 2020, BA Nigeria’s COVID-19 project worked to support the Nigerian Government and RCCE country-level pillar leadership (currently the Health promotion division of the FMoH, NCDC, WHO and UNICEF) with technical assistance to adapt and contextualize plans, tools, templates, and materials to support the preparedness and/or response activities required by Nigeria.

NURHI 2

Phase II of the NURHI Project, which commenced in October 2015, is being implemented in three States: five years (2015-2020) in Lagos and Kaduna States, and three years (2015-2018) in Oyo State. The NURHI II Project is built on the premise that demand for family planning is a requirement for increased contraceptive use therefore increasing demand, which will cause improvement in contraceptive service provision. All of the materials, reports, and other information about NURHI 2 can be found in the NURHI toolkit website.

The Challenge Initiative

The Challenge Initiative (TCI) is a project led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The Initiative represents a new approach to providing life-saving reproductive health and family planning information and services to individuals, families, and communities, building on the demonstrated success of the Gates Foundation’s Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI). Project materials can be found here.

Post Pregnancy Family Planning Project

The Post Pregnancy Family Planning is a four-year Project (2017-2021) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Merck for Mothers aimed at providing post-pregnancy clients with the information and services they require to commence the use of family planning services. The Project is implemented in the private sector which provides services to 65% of its citizens.

The post pregnancy period is the period of pregnancy through one-year post-pregnancy, it includes miscarriages and any pregnancy that does not result in a live birth. Project interventions are integrated along the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) continuum of care services; antenatal, delivery, immunization, postnatal and any interaction the post-pregnancy client has with the health system.

In-clinic mobilization is the focus of demand generation activities targeting a high number of women during antenatal and immunization clinics with social mobilization materials specifically developed to address the needs of the post-pregnancy woman and her partner.

The demand generation approaches

• Increase demand for family planning services among post-pregnant women both in the clinic when they are attending MNCH services and in the communities
• Reduce ideational barriers linked to knowledge, reduce misperception, spousal communication, self-efficacy, risk perception for post-pregnancy women and families
• Address the low perception of quality family planning services in the private sector.

Project materials here.

Voices for Change

Voices for Change, V4C (Nigeria, 2013-2017) was a program which worked to strengthen the enabling environment for gender equality in Nigeria. The program targeted young women and men aged 16–25 years old and oeprated in four states in Nigeria: Enugu, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos. For some activities it operated at the federal level.

NURHI

In Phase I (2009-2014) NURHI operated in six cities (FCT, Ibadan, Ilorin, Kaduna, Benin and Zaria) and significantly contributed to the increase in family planning contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) in these cities, which can be seen in the 2013 National Demographic Health Survey (NDHS). To read more about Phase I of the NURHI Project, Click here All of the information and materials about NURHI can be found on the NURHI Toolkit site.

Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3)

HC3 (2004-2018) in Nigeria focused on:

• Advocacy
• Social Mobilization & Public Enlightenment
• Collaboration
• Training & Capacity Building
• Materials Production & Distribution
• Research, Monitoring & Evaluation

The health focus was on: Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Immunization, and Reproductive Health

Project materials

Adolescents 360

Adolescents 360 (A360) is a program of FHI360 which aims to increase voluntary, modern contraceptive use and reduce unintended pregnancy among adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: October 16, 2020