Nigeria: Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program

active

Prospective

Nigeria is Africa’s largest country (over 200 million people) and largest economy (nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$405 billion in 2020). With an abundance of resources and a young and dynamic society, it has the potential to be a giant on the global stage. But with over 40 percent of its population (over 80 million people) in poverty, Nigeria is also among the countries with the largest number of people living below the poverty line. The HOPE Program aims to support the Governments program to achieve results in human capital development in Nigeria. The operation will be open to all the 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The planned Program will be managed through a sector-wide program pooling funds (Government and Development Partners) and aims to providing cost effective essential benefit package of services focusing on reproductive health, maternal care and nutrition, childhood illnesses, and non-communicable disease screening. A discrete package of promotive, preventive, and simple curative interventions will be delivered at the community level, complementing facility-based primary health care services. The estimated cost of achieving full coverage of 57 primary care services under the Basic Health Care Provision Program (BHCPP) is US$14 per capita annually, more than currently available government resources. Achieving this goal will therefore require careful consideration of the pace of the planned scale-up and of service priorities. To consolidate investments, the BHCPP proposes to: (i) expand Primary Health Centers (PHCs) from one per ward to a population-responsive distribution of two per ward, on average, with a total of over 17,000 nationwide; and (ii) support the implementation of Basic and Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEmONC and CEmONC), including one CEmONC per Local Government Area (LGA), for a total of 774, and an equitable distribution of Tier 2 BEmONC facilities linked to each of the CEmONC facilities. The BHCPP leverages the opportunity to strengthen emergency medical response in rural areas by addressing transportation barriers. In addition, the BHCPP includes plans for workforce strengthening, including investments in training curricula, to address personnel gaps and improve competency and skills. The BHCPP will leverage digital health to create an integrated ecosystem and supports the development of a digital backbone, ensuring interoperability and data exchange. The IPF Component will mainly finance technical assistance (TA) that support the achievement of Program results, including: maternal mortality reduction innovation initiative to support pilot interventions to address maternal mortality in high-burden states; the hiring of an Independent Verification Agency; the design, procurement, and deployment of a federated digital-in-health enterprise architecture; operationalization of the public health fellows' program; and a platform for coordinated TA to support Program implementation. The IPF component will provide support to both national and subnational entities.

World Bank Group

Project

Hospital, Government