News Updates

News and Photo Stories -Week 38

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SFH ACTIVITIES

SFH at United Nations General Assembly

The 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) marks a crucial milestone in the global effort to accelerate progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The highly anticipated Summit of the Future, which will hold during UNGA from 22-23 September 2024, underscores the urgent need for enhanced international cooperation to address pressing challenges such as climate change, poverty and inequality, while also tackling the impacts of ongoing conflicts and global health crises.

At the sidelines of the UNGA, SFH represented by the Managing Director, Dr Omokhudu Idogho and Health Policy Officer for Africa Region, Yusuf Hassan Wada joined Jhpiego and other partners in a crucial conversation on how integrated health services can strengthen communities and protect lives. The event, hosted by Jhpiego and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, themed “Integrating HIV and Emerging Infectious Disease Threats in Primary Health Care,” emphasises the need to move beyond fragmented care and build resilient systems for the future. SFH remains committed to transforming lives and supporting communities towards making the Health For All vision a reality.

Paediatric Breakthrough Partnership (BP) Annual Meeting in Tanzania

Our Project Director for the Paediatric and Adolescent Programme, Aisha Dadi, attended the Paediatric Breakthrough Partnership (BP) Annual Meeting in Tanzania from 16th to 19th September. The meeting aimed to share key achievements, foster cross-country learning, and identify operational improvements to enhance service delivery. During the meeting, she shared updates on BP Nigeria’s intervention in paediatric and adolescent health, highlighting lessons from partnerships at the country level with EGPAF, PATA and SFH.

The annual meeting was attended by country partners from EGPAF, PATA and Aidsfonds across the implementing partners in Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Nigeria. Global partners from UNICEF, Aidsfonds, EGPAF, PATA and ViiV Health Care – the donor were all in attendance. Presentations and discussions were focused on improving team cohesion, strengthening communication, and exploring opportunities for alignment with advocacy, M&E, linking and learning and advocacy to improve adolescent HIV services among partners and countries. Her participation as the country lead highlights the contributions of the partnership in driving strategies for more effective service delivery and collaboration towards HIV epidemic control among children and adolescents in Nigeria.

A360 Nigeria Organises National Pause and Reflect Summit 2024 in Lagos

Since October 2020, SFH, through the A360 Nigeria, has made remarkable strides in addressing the needs of young girls across eight states including Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Osun, Ogun and Oyo States. Collaborating with young people and government health systems to address barriers to access and use of modern contraception among adolescent girls, A360 has been able to reach 662,947 husbands of adolescent girls with ASRH messages, empowering 153,388 girls economically, training 1,837 youth-friendly healthcare providers, and offering comprehensive counselling to 742,929 girls. Notably, 625,929 girls have become new contraceptive adopters, with 264,626 continuing to use contraceptives regularly. To review the significant achievements and progress of SFH-ASRH interventions in Nigeria, the A360 project held a National Pause and Reflect Summit in Lagos State from 18th – 19th September 2024. The event, organised in collaboration with FMOH, focuses on building political commitment for integration into the state system for ownership of A360’s high-impact solutions for sustainable ASRH programming. The current phase of the A360 project emphasises institutionalisation, ensuring that the lessons learned and systems established become fully integrated into state health frameworks. This integration from an SFH-led project to state-led programming highlights the importance of continued support for ASRH in Nigeria.

Key stakeholders present at the event included the Permanent Secretary, FMOH represented by the Director, Family Health Department, Dr Binyerem Ukaire, Managing Director, SFH represented by Deputy Managing Director, Dr Jennifer Anyanti, Honourable Commissioners for State Ministries of Health, Women Affairs, Youth and Sports, Executive Secretaries of State Primary Health Care Board, Traditional Rulers, and partners including WHO, Plan International, FP 2030 and The Challenge Initiative (TCI). These stakeholders, alongside community leaders and A360 beneficiaries, play a critical role in driving the ASRH agenda forward. The Summit provides an opportunity to align state and national priorities with the evolving health policy landscape, including the Nigerian government’s Health Sector Renewal Investment Programme (NHSRIP). The discussions also focused on scaling and institutionalising A360 high-impact solutions, ensuring that ASRH programming remains a priority even beyond the A360 project’s lifecycle. We are excited by the meaningful conversations and remarkable achievements of the A360 project, especially in increasing access to contraception and empowering young girls. These efforts are focused on making contraceptives both relevant and accessible, thus supporting the Government of Nigeria’s agenda to achieve a Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) of 27% by 2030.

   

IntegratE Project Flags-off MEPTP training for PPMVs in Bida LGA, Niger State

The IntegratE Project in collaboration with the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) has commenced a capacity-building exercise aimed at strengthening the skills of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) in Bida LGA, Niger state. As part of the capacity building, PPMVs will undergo the Mandatory Entry Point Training Programme (MEPTP) tailored for both health-trained and non-health-trained PPMVs. The flag-off event organised by Newgate School of Health Technology took place at Egwafin School of Health Technology, with training sessions continuing for the next five weeks. Present at the flag-off event included representatives from key health and government institutions including the Honourable Commissioner of Primary Healthcare, represented by Dr Ibrahim Mohammed, Director of Pharmaceutical Services Pharm Abdullahi Yahaya, IMCI Coordinator Mrs Halima Erena, HOD Newgate School of Technology Pharm Ali Isah, as well as leaders from community services, school of health technologies Niger State and Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (NAPPMED).

This comprehensive training programme aims to enhance the capacity of PPMVs to deliver high-quality family planning and primary healthcare services. The training will cover key areas including quality service delivery for family planning, the integrated management of childhood illnesses such as malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malnutrition, as well as government-approved documentation and reporting methods. We look forward to a successful training program as we continue to equip PPMVs with essential knowledge and skills, for improved quality of health service delivery.  

Promoting PEPFAR’s/USAID Objectives through Institutional Capacity Building

To advance PEPFAR’s goal of achieving HIV epidemic control and 70% local partner funding for sustainability, SFH provides institutional capacity-building support to locally-led community-based organizations (CBOs) to implement integrated HIV programmes for vulnerable populations. Aligned with this objective, SFH-KP-CARE2 project recently organised a five-day annual review meeting capacity building for its CBOs. The event aimed to track progress, share best practices, address challenges, and propose mitigation strategies to ensure the achievement of sustainability plans. 

The meeting included capacity-building workshops focused on reviewing CBO performance, risk management, and fostering cross-learning and knowledge-sharing. Additionally, the programme direction for FY25 was discussed. The review meeting emphasised improving HIV services and strengthening the capacity of participants across key thematic areas including PrEP, STI screening and management, cervical cancer screening, addressing gender-based violence (GBV) etc. In attendance were the SFH-KP-CARE2 project management team, government officials, CBO representatives, and other key stakeholders.  

Success Story- From Tradition to Empowerment: Bilki’s Story of Breaking Free:  In Yandutse community, Ringim Local Government Area, Jigawa state, Nigeria, where tradition and beliefs intertwine with the journey of Bilki Lawan, meet Bilki, a 19-year-old adolescent girl who got married at the age of sixteen. Bilki is pregnant and a full-time housewife living amongst an estimated 38,000 adolescent girls in Ringim LGA (UNFPA, 2019). Bilki shares with us that the entire childbearing women in the family she came from have never attended Antenatal care (ANC) services. Her husband’s family nurtured the belief that attending antenatal care services was unnecessary or even a taboo. They relied on home births, lacking the crucial care and vital information for a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery. Click here to read more

Webinar Alert

Join Dr Eze Nwokoma on the MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery for an engaging conversation around a variety of blended learning models being used with both public and private healthcare providers in the areas of family planning/reproductive health (FP/RH), maternal and newborn health (MNH), and HIV/AIDS. Experts working in Nigeria, Kenya, and Sierra Leone will share recommendations and best practices to be utilised by programme implementers and Ministries of Health considering integrating blended learning models into health provider training plans.

Date: Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Time: 12:00-13:00 GMT

Venue: Virtual (Zoom) Register Here

Catch up with some important updates 

  • Do Two Still Make a Family? We are excited to introduce the latest edition of Buzz Magazine, themed “Do Two Still Make a Family?“

This edition is not your typical magazine; it promises to be engaging, exciting, and educational.

Don’t keep it to yourself—share it with a friend! Download here to read

CPHIA2024 Call For Abstracts Is Now Open!

Please spread the word as wide as you can, requests for abstracts, side events and exhibitions for CPHIA2024 are now officially live and open! Deadline is September 23, 2024. Kindly click here.

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