Nigeria Evidence-Based Health Systems Initiative (NEHSI)

Results achieved as of July 2014 include: (1) assisting two state governments to transition from using paper-based health data collection forms to using mobile technology thereby improving the turnaround time for analysis referral and reporting; (2) informing more than 10 000 people on maternal health through an evidence-based docudrama including discussions on what pregnant women and their families can do to ensure a healthy pregnancy; (3) holding advocacy and sensitization meetings with nearly 1 400 community leaders to integrate the data collected into existing health and information systems for actionable change to policy and practice; (4) supporting a youth version of the docudrama developed in collaboration with youth and holding discussions on maternal health issues in which 602 youth participated; (5) informing more than 28 000 women and men through docudramas focused on child health measures including the prevention of childhood illnesses and key corrective actions to take; (6) improving women’s use of maternal health services (by identifying 24 253 women of childbearing age and registering 5 501 pregnant women for monitoring); (7) identifying 39 426 households where mothers are at risk of ill-health 22 745 pregnant women and 3 264 newborns to schedule prenatal and post-natal visits; and (8) increasing the use of evidence in planning and budgeting for health services by providing training on the subject to 764 female state and local government employees in Cross River and Bauchi and by collecting accurate health data. These activities are leading to improved participation and engagement by community members including women in health services and health planning. Moreover gender-sensitive evidence is being used increasingly to train plan budget and deliver more equitable effective and efficient primary health care services.