My name is Chima and I have recently taken on the role as the Country Representative in Nigeria for the IHP+Results team. This is an exciting time in Nigeria and the work could not have come at a better time as there is currently significant progress underway here to develop state and federal health plans, which together will be compiled to form a National Strategic Health Development Plan. This is all in line with Nigeria’s overall Development Plan (known here as 20 by 2020). This week bilateral and multilateral partners, including the IHP+ Global Compact signatories, are working on this together. In fact, a substantial IHP+ Harmonisation for Health (HHA) international team are here in Nigeria to support this whole process, including costing and a framework for monitoring and evaluation.
Nigeria has a federal government so the architecture is a little more complicated than in some other countries, particularly around IHP+ issues such as country ownership, mutual accountability and aid harmonization and alignment. Despite the potential challenges, Nigeria could at the end of the day, provide an important example of how numerous stakeholders, including her federating units could work together to achieve the goals of health system strengthening.
On Monday there is a meeting with all the various government agencies (many of which have been running parallel programmes) who would also meet with almost all State Commissioners of the Federation to look at their plans. I am attending a meeting with all of the stakeholders in health on Friday and hope to get the opportunity to meet with people on a one-to-one basis to learn more about their plans, with a view to writing my narrative report this month. Next week, there is a Presidential Summit on Health where the President will work with the State Governors to sign commit to the development of state health plans. I hope to also be able to attend these meetings.
There are many challenges to the process ahead and to whether the IHP+ initiative can help deliver positive results for Nigeria. The quality and costing of plans, ongoing monitoring and evaluation as well as future political commitment are all key issues. However, this is a crucial time and the signs are positive as a result of strong leadership from the Government, and in particular, the Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin.
I will aim to keep you updated with regard to my progress and key meeting outcomes next week when I have returned from the meetings. Follow my progress here, and let me know what you think – leave a comment, or even start a new discussion. Just sign up to participate.
