After a new $71.3 million investment, The Challenge Initiative will remain in place in 11 countries. In Nigeria, it is led by CCP. The Gates Institute will continue global oversight.
“After four years of support, these states have now … taken full ownership for driving and implementing high-impact interventions to improve their respective family planning landscapes,” says CCP’s Victor Igharo, who directs The Challenge Initiative in Nigeria.
Susan Rich has been involved with the CCP-led Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative since it began 10 years ago. In this Q&A, she reflects on a decade of NURHI as it comes to an end.
CCP talks to Rodio Diallo of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who manages the Foundation’s family planning portfolio in Nigeria, about the successes and sustainability of the work of the NURHI project, which ends this year.
“Ten years ago, we set off to make family planning a social norm in Nigeria,” says Susan Krenn, CCP’s executive director. “Not only have we achieved that hand-in-hand with our government partners, we celebrate the end of NURHI knowing that what we have started will continue on.”
“My Family Planning Guide” is a distance learning education mobile app designed by CCP in Nigeria to keep family planning service providers up-to-date on the newest types of modern contraception and strengthen interpersonal communication with clients.
In late April, after eight years of advocacy work by CCP, the House Assembly of Oyo State passed a bill requiring the state to fund family planning there. CCP staff hope other states will soon follow Oyo’s lead.
“Social media is such a powerful tool to use to reach young people,” says CCP’s Aisha Waziri.
Women in Nigeria whose clerics extol the benefits of family planning were significantly more likely to adopt modern contraceptive methods, new research suggests, highlighting the importance of engaging religious leaders to help increase the country’s stubbornly low uptake of family planning services.
After each clinic makeover, the use of modern family planning services there increased significantly. Renovating the environment makes it more appealing, cleaner and motivates clients to seek care at the facility.
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