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Nigeria

HP+ More recent Nigeria publications are available.

  • For several decades, civil society organizations (CSOs) in Nigeria have been advocating for increased resources for reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP) services and commodities. Many people assume that once policymakers make a public commitment to provide funding for a specific purpose, the funds are assured. However, such a commitment is only the first step in securing budgetary allocation. The necessary steps include formal approval for the budgetary allocation, inclusion of the funds in the approved budget, release of the funds for the program, and expenditure of the funds intended.

    CSOs can play a key role in ensuring that public funds are used for the intended purpose and actually reach the intended beneficiaries. To do so, they need to understand the budgetary process and the role of nongovernmental stakeholders in the process. The inner workings of the state-level budget process in Nigeria are not well understood, and there is little documentation of the process to provide guidance.

    To help CSOs in Nigeria understand and actively participate in the budget process, the Health Policy Project conducted an assessment to identify the differences between theory and practice in state-level budgeting. In doing so, several entry points emerged for CSOs to make a difference in FP/RH funding; the key tasks identified include

    • Advocate for increased funds for FP/RH programs and commodities
    • Ensure that adequate funds are budgeted, obligated, and released in a timely manner
    • Track state-level budget expenditures, especially funds actually expended for FP/RH services and commodities
    • Hold policymakers and program managers accountable for the effective use of public funds

  • Health financing was the theme of a major national conference held in Calabar, Nigeria in November 2011. The specific focus of the three-day conference was “Improving Financial Access to Health Services for the Poor in Nigeria.” Participants shared information on a wide range of health financing strategies and mechanisms employed in Nigeria as well as other countries. The 255 participants represented a broad range of expertise; they included health managers and providers, insurance specialists, health economists, government officials, and media representatives from all 36 states and the national capital. State representatives met in regional groups to discuss the approaches most applicable to their area and formulate plans to apply these approaches at the state or community level. The conference generated many “actionable” policy and program initiatives that the states and federal government can adopt.

    This presentation was one of five presentations made by the Health Policy Project. The presenter gave a brief overview of various software models available to help health planners and managers to estimate and project costs for various health services. These tools can be adapted for use at the state and local level and used to estimate costs to reach a specific goal or to expand or upgrade services.

  • The Health Policy Project (HPP) helped countries achieve their health goals by building capacity for policy, advocacy, governance, and finance at multiple levels. The project developed global tools and best practices for policy work, promoted South-South sharing and collaboration, and carried out regional and country-specific policy initiatives. The files included in this zip document provide brief program overviews for each country highlighting key accomplishments. Individual briefs are available from the country pages.

  • These evidence-based advocacy materials, based on Spectrum projections, were produced under the USAID-funded Health Policy Project by the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria to support national- and state-level advocacy efforts aimed at increasing access to family planning.

  • In November 2011 in Nigeria, a landmark national conference, "Improving Financial Access to Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services for the Poor in Nigeria," was held. The conference organizers included three federal agencies, the African Health Economics and Policy Association, four United Nations agencies, three donor countries, and five health projects, including the Health Policy Project. A total of 255 experts from all 36 Nigerian states and the Federal Capital Territory came together to discuss strategies to improve financial access to integrated MNCH services, with the aim of achieving universal health coverage. These strategies highlighted the need for advocacy and policy change, innovation in the design and implementation of health financing schemes, strengthening of the social health insurance scheme, and collaboration with private sector health providers.

    A complete list of sponsoring agencies and all conference materials and presentations are available on the conference website at http://www.healthfinancenigeria.org.

  • Countries in West Africa (WA) have made significant progress in addressing the HIV epidemic. However, HIV prevalence among sex workers (SWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM) remains high, and data are unavailable for transgender (TG) populations. Services that meet the needs of SWs, MSM, and TG are often unavailable outside of major cities. Stigma and discrimination (S&D) against key populations impact service uptake and increase migration, making it harder to reach these populations. Policies—such as laws, national strategies, and operational procedures—impact service availability and uptake. To inform decisionmakers and improve access to HIV-related services for mobile SWs, MSM, and TG populations in West Africa, the USAID- and PEPFAR-funded Health Policy Project (HPP) conducted an analysis of key policies in countries along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor and Burkina Faso.

  • Investing for impact is an explicit goal of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The institution’s strategy for 2012 to 2016 focuses on countries and populations where interventions promise maximum rewards for public health. As part of this “New Funding Model,” the Global Fund is asking applicant countries seeking financing to more accurately  demonstrate where and how their HIV programs will yield significant, measurable improvements in limiting the spread of the virus. Accomplishing this will depend to a great extent on each country’s ability to use geospatial analysis of epidemiological data to target resources to areas with the greatest need.

    Not all countries seeking Global Fund support have extensive experience with geospatial analysis. To address this gap, the Health Policy Project (HPP)—funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—is working with 9 countries eligible for Global Fund support to strengthen their use of geospatial analysis in HIV policymaking and in strategic, financial, and program planning.

  • In 2011, the Health Policy Project, in collaboration with the Family Planning Action Group (FPAG), supported the development of a Nigeria RAPID application. The FPAG, comprising governmental and nongovernmental organizations, focuses on the state of family planning in Nigeria and the need for more support and funding for the national family planning program. “RAPID” stands for “Resources for the Awareness of Population Impacts on Development,” and it is a tool designed to help policymakers understand the relationships between fertility, population growth, health, education, agriculture, economic growth, and national security. This package of materials uses RAPID projections to highlight the impact of Nigeria's population growth on national development and its ability to provide education, health, and nutrition to all its citizens. By lowering average fertility, savings in primary education and health could amount to $37 billion and $45 billion, respectively, by 2040.

    Also see the RAPID package of materials highlighting the impact of high fertility on maternal and child health: Nigeria RAPID Population and Development: Why Fertility Affects Health.

  • In 2011, the Health Policy Project, in collaboration with the Family Planning Action Group (FPAG), supported the development of a Nigeria RAPID application. The FPAG, comprising governmental and nongovernmental organizations, focuses on the state of family planning in Nigeria and the need for more support and funding for the national family planning program. “RAPID” stands for “Resources for the Awareness of Population Impacts on Development,” and it is a tool designed to help policymakers understand the relationships between fertility, population growth, health, education, agriculture, economic growth, and national security. This package of materials uses RAPID projections to highlight the large unmet need for family planning in Nigeria and its impact on maternal and child health. By lowering average fertility in the country, 31,000 maternal deaths and 1.5 million child deaths could be averted by 2021.

    Also see the RAPID package of materials highlighting the impact of rapid population growth on the country's development: Nigeria RAPID Population and Development: How Fertility Affects Development.

  • In 2014, the Health Policy Project, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), supported the development of a subnational family planning advocacy booklet in Adamawa, Nigeria. Using Resources for the Awareness of Population Impacts on Development (RAPID), this booklet highlights the impact of the state’s low contraceptive use and high population growth on its development prospects, principally its ability to provide education, health, nutrition and employment to all its citizens.

  • In 2014, the Health Policy Project, in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), supported the development of a subnational family planning advocacy materials in Adamawa, Nigeria.Using the Resources for the Awareness of Population Impacts on Development (RAPID) model, this brief highlights how smaller families would relieve pressure on the provision of primary education and public health services, and alleviate food insecurity as well as unemployment in Adamawa state by 2050.

  • With a current population exceeding 170 million, the Federal Republic of Nigeria is the seventh-largest country in the world and the most populous in Africa. Despite the introduction of policies and programs over the last 30 years to address Nigeria’s rapid population growth and the challenges it poses for development, the country is projected to become the third-largest nation in the world by mid-century (United Nations Population Division, 2015). These continuing demographic trends—coupled with emerging national priorities and new international development frameworks—created the need to assess the implementation of Nigeria’s 2004 Policy on Population for Sustainable Development (henceforth NPP, or the policy). Results from this USAID-funded Health Policy Project assessment are intended to guide the formulation of a revised policy and the approaches needed to realize its goals and objectives.

  • Health financing was the theme of a major national conference held in Calabar, Nigeria in November 2011. The specific focus of the three-day conference was “Improving Financial Access to Health Services for the Poor in Nigeria.” Participants shared information on a wide range of health financing strategies and mechanisms employed in Nigeria as well as other countries. The 255 participants represented a broad range of expertise; they included health managers and providers, insurance specialists, health economists, government officials, and media representatives from all 36 states and the national capital. State representatives met in regional groups to discuss the approaches most applicable to their area and formulate plans to apply these approaches at the state or community level. The conference generated many “actionable” policy and program initiatives that the states and federal government can adopt.

    This is one of the five presentations made by the Health Policy Project. The presenter explains how to measure poverty and inequality, how to display poverty data to illustrate inequities in health status and use of health services, and, finally, how to understand and address common data challenges.

  • This guide is designed to support communities and, specifically, healthcare providers in confronting D&A during facility-based childbirth and promoting dignity in evidence-based maternity care. This guide has been adapted from the generic guide produced by the Population Council to reflect the Nigerian context and the specific needs of healthcare workers at primary, state, and federal levels in the country.This toolkit was prepared by the White Ribbon Alliance with support from the USAID-funded Health Policy Project.

  • Expanding access to health insurance is an important part of an overall strategy to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). Since its launch in 1999, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been Nigeria’s major initiative to expand health insurance in the country. To support this endeavor, the Health Policy Project conducted case studies of the experience of three countries—Colombia, India, and Thailand—as they developed government policies as a strategy to achieve universal health coverage (UHC). The lessons learned should be useful for Nigerian stakeholders involved in expanding and improving the NHIS, as well as for stakeholders in any country facing similar challenges. How health insurance expansion features in a UHC strategy depends on the resources available to the government via general taxation; the growth and maturity of private voluntary health insurance markets; and, most important, the state of the health system across primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare. Our case studies suggest that pragmatic choices made by lower-middle and middle-income governments—a group where Nigeria may be placed—have involved hybrid health financing models.

  • Health financing was the theme of a major national conference held in Calabar, Nigeria in November 2011. The specific focus of the three-day conference was “Improving Financial Access to Health Services for the Poor in Nigeria.” Participants shared information on a wide range of health financing strategies and mechanisms employed in Nigeria as well as other countries. The 255 participants represented a broad range of expertise; they included health managers and providers, insurance specialists, health economists, government officials, and media representatives from all 36 states and the national capital. State representatives met in regional groups to discuss the approaches most applicable to their area and formulate plans to apply these approaches at the state or community level. The conference generated many “actionable” policy and program initiatives that the states and federal government can adopt.

    This presentation is one of five presentations made by the Health Policy Project. The presenter gave an overview of a pilot project in Kenya, which found that the provision of subsidized vouchers for maternal health and family planning services were effective in reaching the poor at a reasonable cost; providers were paid for specific services (rather than supporting operating costs).

  • This presentation is one of five made by the Health Policy Project at a national health financing conference held in Calabar, Nigeria, in November 2011. Participants, including health managers and providers, insurance specialists, health economists, government officials, and media representatives, shared information on a wide range of health financing strategies and mechanisms employed in Nigeria and other countries.

    The Equity Framework is an approach that targets family planning and reproductive health resources to the poor—a segment of the population that is often overlooked in health program planning. The presentation examines a case study in Jharkhand, India—one of India’s poorest states—where health planners applied the Equity Framework to develop a voucher scheme to enable low-income women to access reproductive health services. Conference participants were able to learn from the success garnered in India and adopt similar policy and program initiatives to expand access to family planning and reproductive health services to the poor in Nigeria.

  • Health financing was the theme of a major national conference held in Calabar, Nigeria in November 2011. The specific focus of the three-day conference was “Improving Financial Access to Health Services for the Poor in Nigeria.” Participants shared information on a wide range of health financing strategies and mechanisms employed in Nigeria as well as other countries. The 255 participants represented a broad range of expertise; they included health managers and providers, insurance specialists, health economists, government officials, and media representatives from all 36 states and the national capital. State representatives met in regional groups to discuss the approaches most applicable to their area and formulate plans to apply these approaches at the state or community level. The conference generated many “actionable” policy and program initiatives that the states and federal government can adopt.

    This presentation is one of five presentations made by the Health Policy Project. The presenter gave an overview of an activity in Peru, where family planning advocates analyzed the needs of low-income women and successfully tapped into funding sources at the local, regional, and national level to increase access to FP services.

  • This study, conducted by the USAID- and PEPFAR-funded Health Policy Project (HPP), assessed the costs and benefits of different prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) treatment options (baseline treatment as currently offered, Option B, and Option B+). It is intended to inform the scale-up of PMTCT services in Nigeria’s 13 high-burden states, which account for 70 percent of the mother-to-child transmission burden.

  • The GAP Tool (Gather, Analyze, and Plan) is a simple Excel-based tool designed to help policymakers, ministry officials, health officials, and advocates understand and plan for the costs associated with expanding family planning (FP) to achieve their country's contraceptive prevalence or fertility goals. This PowerPoint presentation provides a brief overview of the benefits of and major steps for applying the GAP Tool and includes highlights from a pilot application of the tool in Ethiopia and Nigeria.  

  • The GAP Tool (Gather, Analyze, and Plan) is a simple Excel-based tool designed to help policymakers, ministry officials, health officials, and advocates understand and plan for the costs associated with expanding family planning (FP) to achieve their country's contraceptive prevalence or fertility goals. This brief provides a brief overview of the benefits of and major steps for applying the GAP Tool and includes highlights from a pilot application of the tool in Ethiopia and Nigeria.