Update: Immunization Plus Days

During the March round of National Immunization Plus Days (NIPD), eHealth Africa (eHA) provided vaccinator tracking support to ten southern states in Nigeria: Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, Ekiti, and Delta. In May, eHA took part in the state-level IPD in 24 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in three of Nigeria’s northern states (Bauchi, Katsina, Kano).

The May IPD campaign took place from May 14-17. Our field officers were on the ground in 24 LGAs providing technical support for the vaccinator tracking activity. Every IPD campaign is different and, as usual, the May campaign presented a variety of new experiences and challenges for our vaccinator tracking teams.

One of the issues faced was the distance from the campaign takeoff point office to the ward settlements where the vaccination teams traveled for daily house-to-house visits. Many wards were 4-5 hours away from the base office in the respective LGAs. As a result, some teams could not return their phone trackers on a daily basis as intended. This caused a delay in the uploading of geographic “tracks” from the the team’s phones onto our server. Consequently, daily field results (via dashboard visualization) were only able to be reviewed at the end of the campaign by stakeholders, as opposed to on a daily basis at campaign evening review meetings. This was especially the case for several LGAs in Bauchi and Yobe state.

Poor network issues also made it difficult for our staff to upload data in a timely manner to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) dashboard in the states they were based. This issue was mainly experienced in Yobe state areas including Fika, Jakusko, and Machina LGAs. Another key issue was security problems in several locations due to insurgency threats and political unrest, notably in Yobe state.

After encountering and overcoming the above-mentioned challenges, we are glad to report that our eHA field officers successfully conducted vaccinator tracking activities for the May IPD campaign. We were able to get valid recordings of the geographic coverage achieved by the vaccination teams for each LGA supported. We look forward to the upcoming campaign in October, and remain committed to aiding the nation in achieving its goal of receiving the certification of eradication of polio from WHO in 2017.

eHA Nigeria Hosts Representatives From HarvestPlus

A recent report from UNICEF shows that Nigeria as a country loses 145 women and 2,300 children between the ages of 0-5 years every day. While there are a variety of causes such as disease, one of the largest culprits in this tragedy is malnutrition. In Nigeria, malnutrition accounts for over 50% of morbidity and mortality in a large proportion of children between the ages of 0-5.

In view of this, eHealth Africa (eHA) is developing a new partnership with HarvestPlus to address malnutrition in Northern Nigeria through production and consumption of biofortified foods. eHealth Africa’s Nutrition and Food Security Program Manager Dr. Sarma Mallubhotla hosted representatives of HarvestPlus:Country Director Paul Ilona and Communications Manager Ifeoma Okonkwo. The representatives met with eHA Executive Director Adam Thompson, Deputy Country Director Atef Fawaz, and various program managers. They also met with Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Coordinators, as well as the Global Health Informatics team leads.

To start the brainstorming session, representatives from both eHA and HarvestPlus provided overviews of their organizations. After these introductions, discussions were held on how the proposed partnership could help introduce more nutritious Provitamin A rich Maize and Cassava, Iron rich Sorghum, and Zinc Rice to farmers in Northern Nigeria. The discussion also explored possible ways to create awareness of the nutritious value of the crops and encourage their uptake across the value chain. All of these discussions are focused on one goal: improving the diet of the most vulnerable population in Nigeria.

HarvestPlus leads a global effort to improve nutrition and public health by developing and disseminating staple food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals. HarvestPlus works with public and private sector partners in more than 40 countries and is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and the Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), which helps realize the potential of agricultural development to deliver gender equitable health and nutritional benefits to the poor. 

As a result of this joint brainstorming session, eHA and HarvestPlus are looking forward to developing a collaborative agreement and detailed work plan to build a productive partnership that will contribute to the fight against malnutrition in Nigeria.