Nigeria

For millions of women in the world, giving birth is one of the biggest threats to their lives. Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios—approximately 630 women die for every 100,000 births. Having a trained health worker present during the birth can make the difference between life and death for both the mother and the baby. But the challenge lies in ensuring that health workers are present, ready, connected, and safe.

This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.

Meet three men in Africa who share two key beliefs: access to health care for all people is vital, and healthy people build strong economies.

Samuel Nugblega of the Christian Health Association of Ghana believes in helping his country develop economically by improving the health of Ghanaians. “Health is fundamental to everything,” he says. “And from Ghana, we say health creates wealth.” To bring this about, Samuel works to support the health workers who deliver vital services. Read more »

On February 19, 2013, CapacityPlus launched a scholarship bursary scheme, one of its mechanisms for supporting preservice education in Nigeria. The launch events, held in Edo and Benue States, were well attended by government dignitaries and by beneficiaries of the assistance. For me, it was a joyful thing to see smiles on the faces of indigent students who now could breathe some air of hope.

CapacityPlus/Nigeria is working to increase the numbers of health workers to meet the priority health needs of underserved populations. The project aims to boost the number of new health workers produced in Nigeria—in particular by supporting the preservice education and qualification of midwives and community health extension workers—accelerating Nigeria’s contribution toward PEPFAR’s target of supporting the training and retention of more than 140,000 new health workers. Read more »

Driving around Abuja, Nigeria you cannot miss the Aso Rock, a large 400-meter monolith overlooking the city. The name “Aso” means victorious in the native language of the Asokoro people. In September I traveled to Abuja to provide management and operations support for our newly opened CapacityPlus office. I couldn’t help but think that the most prominent natural feature in the city, named after success, was a good sign for our human resources for health (HRH) activities in the country. 

The office supports CapacityPlus’s growing health systems strengthening portfolio in Nigeria, with a focus on PEPFAR-funded preservice education and in-service training, scaling up human resources information systems at the national and state level, and supporting the Federal Ministry of Health on key HRH leadership, partnership, and management activities.  Read more »