Nigeria Project Briefs
Assuring Public Health International & Domestic Security (APHIDS)
Following the completion of the WHO-led Joint External Evaluation (JEE) in Nigeria in 2017, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) engaged in strategic activities and interventions over a 5-year period to improve its scoring across all accessed indicators. A framework that will provide proper linkage and coordination between technical and programmatic activities to outcomes internally and externally for the NCDC was then proposed in 2018 by the United State Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC).
Georgetown University in conjunction with Savannah Health System Innovation Ltd (SHSIL), and with technical support from the US CDC and user interaction/feedback from the NCDC, developed and deployed an Enterprise-wide project portfolio and program management platform named APHIDS app (Assuring Public health International and Domestic Security application). They designed it to help NCDC achieve its mandate to lead the preparedness, detection, and response to infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies by effectively and efficiently managing resources, risk, and interdependencies in a timely manner. APHIDS is a multipurpose electronic system that uses project management principles to support the planning, tracking, and execution of all activities and projects toward achieving the International Health Regulations (IHR) in Nigeria.
The project’s goal is to implement a framework with a set of tools that will enable the NCDC and other relevant agencies to organize and monitor health security-wide project portfolios and programs necessary to achieve the IHR goal.
The APHIDS platform provides functional project management components in one place that support the coordination, monitoring, supervision, and execution of day-to-day activities at the NCDC. This includes the institutionalization of project management with the use of technology (APHIDS) at all levels.
The project will provide technical assistance and support to NCDC to implement programs that protect and improve health by addressing identified gaps. It will also develop benchmark action plans to address these critical gaps and constraints in the implementation of programs and business processes management by employing best global practices. These will be enhanced by APHIDS technology solutions to improve the development of core capacities for GHSA implementation.
Accelerating Control of HIV Epidemic in Nigeria -Cluster 2
Nigerian States Jigawa (JG), Bauchi (BC), and Kano (KN) are among the seven with the lowest burden of HIV in Nigeria with a prevalence of 0.3%, 0.5%, and 0.6%. respectively. However, the preponderance of risk factors that drive the epidemic in these states is based on the main socio-cultural practices (multiple, concurrent sexual partners) and clandestine behaviors (injection of drugs and unprotected anal sex). This underscores the need for active case finding, linkage to care, and optimization of treatment to meet the UNAIDS goal in this area.
A huge performance gap exists in the three states due to sub-optimal case screening for tuberculosis, the predominant cause of death among PLHIV. The discrepancies between yearly estimated and notification rates are the results of under-reporting of detected tuberculosis cases and under-diagnosis of people with tuberculosis. The reduction in program funding, persistent structural and technical gaps in coordinating HIV/AIDS/TB (HAT) service delivery, and the compounding effect of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need to scale up innovative approaches for achieving and maintaining HIV epidemic control.
A Georgetown Global Health Nigeria (GGHN)-led consortium plans to implement the Accelerating Control of HIV Epidemic in Nigeria – Cluster 2 (ACE 2) project in Bauchi, Jigawa, and Kano states. The project will include interventions that will consolidate and expand on significant gains made by USAID’s current community programs to achieve greater development outcomes while building local capacity and establishing a roadmap for self-reliance. The project will utilize Georgetown’s Local Innovations Scaled Through Enterprise Networks (LISTEN) process as the foundation for implementing crosscutting approaches built around gender responsiveness, government ownership, and environmental compliance.
The key project elements are:
- Sustainable service delivery models
- Mentorship and coaching in a programmatic and technical capacity to achieve and sustain HIV epidemic control
- Human-centered design
- Data for precision programming and transition
- Leveraging technology solutions
- Programming in humanitarian settings and response
The project will accelerate the state’s progress toward HIV epidemic control through comprehensive integrated approaches to achieving goals in three areas:
- Increase resilience, responsiveness, and accountability of the health system
- Increase the quality of HIV/AIDS/TB services
- Increase access and provision of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services within primary health care interventions
Project leaders envision that it will consolidate sustainable service delivery models that will build local capacity by intermingling with community structures that promote financial self-reliance and access to comprehensive HAT services.