Abt Associates Supports Presidential Summit on Health in Nigeria

Over the last decade, Nigeria has renewed its efforts to improve lagging health indicators, especially those related to the health and well being of women and children. Past strategies employed by the Nigerian Government to improve access to health care have been grounded in an “information marketing” and ”telling the people” approach without enough attention being placed on the fact that behavior and attitudinal change is the combined result of many social, cultural, and religious factors.

The Abt Associates-led PATHS2 project, a $195 million contract from the U.K. Department of International Development, is supporting this renewed leadership commitment in the health sector with an eye on new approaches and not just “business as usual.” PATHS2 began supporting the government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Health to create change in the health sector. Working with stakeholders in health, PATHS2 helped the Federal Ministry develop an extensive media strategy aimed at ensuring increased engagement and participation on health issues by communities and promoting accountability and responsiveness by the government.

The Nigerian Minister of Health and several State Governors convened at the Presidential Summit on Health in Nigeria, supported by PATHS2.

With this in mind, the “State of Health in Nigeria,” a 15-minute video documentary, was conceptualized and produced with PATHS2 support. The rationale behind the production of the documentary was to represent the voices of the people — especially vulnerable and marginalized persons — with the views of policy makers on the same topics. Thus, the documentary serves as an advocacy tool to garner more support and commitment from the different tiers of government to provide a better environment to improve health facilities for their constituencies. The documentary has gained widespread accolades for depicting the true state of health in Nigeria and President of Nigeria Umaru Musa Yar Adua, after viewing it, summoned a special Presidential Summit on Health which was held November 5-6, 2009 in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.

The Summit, “Accepting Collective Responsibilities for Improving Health in Nigeria” was an interactive and participatory forum that engaged State Governors to commit to on-going efforts to meet the health needs of their people and the achievement of Nigeria’s national health program objectives and targets. Discussions focused on implementation and critical issues that will further strengthen the collaboration between the states and the federal government. The PATHS2 project will continue its facilitative and strategic engagements with Nigeria’s government to ensure that the commitments made at the Summit are actualized.