FROM RESEARCH TO RESULTS
Two Nigerian states have collected timely, accurate health information that will be used to improve maternal health care. Nigeria’s National Council on Health has encouraged the country’s 35 other states to follow suit.
About 10% of maternal deaths recorded annually worldwide occur in Nigeria, which has some of the highest infant, child, and maternal mortality rates in the world. To tackle these and other pressing health challenges, the Government of Nigeria recognizes that collecting and using reliable health information will help to better target services and resources.
With this goal in mind, Bauchi and Cross River states are taking part in the Nigeria Evidence-based Health System Initiative, a collaboration between the Nigerian government, IDRC, and the Canadian International Development Agency. The project also taps into the expertise of the Community Information Empowerment and Transparency Trust, an IDRC-supported research group that has engaged communities in health planning for 25 years.
The states focused the first round of data collection on maternal health. More than 25,000 women provided information, and community focus groups are helping to interpret the data. Researchers will analyze this wealth of new information and decision-makers will be able to use it to make life-saving policy and program changes.
At its semi-annual gathering in March 2010, Nigeria’s highest-level health body, the National Council on Health, applauded the efforts. As one Bauchi health official observed, the project’s impacts already go “beyond health planning. We can use it also for other development planning.”
http://www.idrc.ca/es/ev-157770-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
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