UK Support to Health in Nigeria - Lafiya Programme

Nigeria has a high disease burden driven by poverty and inequality as well as a weak health system, characterised by chronic under-funding. Compared to countries of similar level of development its progress towards universal health coverage is poor. The Government of Nigeria has set out a vision for human capital development which includes significant investments in health alongside education, nutrition and labour force participation.

The UK Support to Health in Nigeria – Lafiya programme was the UK’s flagship health programme in Nigeria. The objective of the Lafiya programme was to improve health outcomes for the poorest and most vulnerable in Nigeria by working with the Government of Nigeria to increase resources invested in health; improve the effectiveness and efficiency of public and private basic health services and increase the modern contraceptive prevalence rate. The programme worked at Federal and State levels (Borno, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Yobe).

As a core member of the Lafiya consortium, we were responsible for increasing the demand for affordable basic health services and enabling civil society to advocate for the government to prioritise health as a key component of human capital development.

We did this by:

• Supporting targeted, data-driven and clearer communications to support political advocacy on human capital with a focus on health.
• Identifying and cultivating change agents who could advocate for increased investment in health as part of human capital development.
• Tracking state-level government human capital commitments to hold decision makers to account.
• Strengthening existing mechanisms for health entitlement communication, facilitating inclusive community participation and strengthening community accountability.
• Strengthening civil society engagement with the implementation of the Government of Nigeria’s Human Capital Development vision.

The programme was led by Palladium, and alongside Options, consortium partners include the Society for Family Health, Chatham House, Solina, CHECOD and PharmAccess.