Partnering with the GFF to improve maternal and child health in Nigeria
Over the last year, we have been working alongside the Global Financing Facility or Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) to support public sector health teams to enhance the delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health.
The GFF is a multi-stakeholder global partnership housed at the World Bank that is committed to ensuring all women, children and adolescents can survive and thrive. Launched in July 2015, the GFF supports 36 low and lower-middle-income countries with catalytic financing and technical assistance to scale up access to affordable, quality care for women, children, and adolescents.
Country leadership lies at the core of the GFF's collaborative model and is crucial to driving transformational change. The GFF has set up the Country Leadership Program (CLP) to help leaders in the health sector learn from each other, and to provide them with the necessary skills and support to bring about significant change in health systems.
To achieve this, the GFF has teamed up with AMP Health to support CLP alumni in selected countries. The aim is to enhance their leadership and management abilities and find ways to use the skills they have gained by participating in the CLP to tackle critical health issues. Nigeria is the first country where the GFF and AMP are working together, and there are plans to expand this partnership to other countries in the near future.
From experiential learning workshops to embedded leadership and management support and mentorship, AMP Health and the GFF have been strengthening the leadership and management capabilities of public health leaders in Nigeria who are committed to enhancing the delivery of healthcare services for women and children.
Together, we have achieved several remarkable successes
AMP has engaged with over 50 health system leaders who are working to improve health outcomes for women and children in Nigeria. Communication and coordination have improved, and the team is developing a coordinated strategy to guide the delivery of services focused on reproductive, maternal, child, adolescent, and child health.
AMP has embedded a Management Partner, Dr Shola Dele-Olowu, in the Federal Ministry of Health to strengthen the leadership and management capabilities of health leaders working across reproductive, maternal and child health, as well as nutrition. “It has been inspiring to walk with the Nigeria CLP Alumni through their transformative leadership journey. As many Alumni acknowledge, a lot of the concepts of the CLP were familiar but there was a fresh perspective and approach to applying transformative leadership competencies to their day-to-day work,” says Shola.
In addition to the day-to-day support of the AMP Management Partner, AMP has facilitated experiential learning sessions, to support CLP alumni and other health systems leaders to develop their leadership skills, including effective communication, evidence-based decision making, and adaptability. We have provided practical tools and resources that help teams implement these practices in their work, allowing them to better coordinate and address challenges.
His Royal Highness Dr Haliru Yahaya, the Emir of Shonga and Co-chair and Royal Champion of the RMNCAEH+N multistakeholder coordination platform. Image courtesy of GFF
Luis Pinto, Senior Knowledge & Learning Officer at The World Bank. Image courtesy of GFF.
Shola highlights some of the important progress that the CLP team has made in Nigeria through this partnership: “From small incremental changes in behaviour at work, such as Alumni creating joint platforms to share information, to systemic level changes to improve integrated governance, It is moving to see the continued effort of Alumni to make their leadership mark across different levels of Nigeria’s health sector.”
Our partnership with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, with the support of the GFF, is a testament to what can be achieved when like-minded organisations come together to address a common goal. We look forward to sharing our learnings and insights with other countries as we work to build a healthier, more equitable world together.