COVID-19 Response Basket Fund in Nigeria

The project aims to support Nigeria’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring optimum care of the confirmed cases containing further spread of the outbreak and establishing a pathway for rapid recovery and resilience. The project aligns with and supports the rapid implementation of the Government of Nigeria’s national COVID-19 multi-sectoral pandemic response plan and enables a coordinated approach for the international community and United Nations’ (UN) agencies to provide targeted and coordinated support. Project activities include: (1) increasing access for health facilities to critical medical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE) testing kits and treatment facility materials; (2) supporting vulnerable households with cash transfers and livelihoods opportunities; (3) raising awareness on sexual and gender-based violence prevention; (4) providing support to health facilities including for the continuation of reproductive and maternal health care; and (5) strengthening the coordinated COVID-19 response plan of the states and federal government.

The expected outcome for this project is that the rapid implementation of Nigeria’s National COVID-19 multi-sectoral pandemic response plan is strengthened. This is to be achieved by: (1) improving rapid procurement of disease commodity packages for surveillance prevention and control and clinical management; (2) supporting complementary ongoing risk communication strategies for sustained community engagement and cooperation; (3) supporting the development of tailored and decentralized response strategies at the state-level and aligned to the coordinated framework at the Federal level; (4) maintaining access to essential health services; (5) enhancing pro-active gender-responsive early recovery social protection and cohesion and gender-based-violence response including with vulnerable groups; (6) improving coordination of partnerships and mobilization of resources for collective response.