This is a story of how the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) collaborated with the Government at the Federal and State levels to pull off the first of its kind virtual dissemination events in four locations - Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and Oyo.

1. Blazing
the Trail:
NURHI’s Outstanding
Collaboration with the
Nigerian Government to
Execute an
Unprecedented Series of
Virtual End of Project
Disseminations
Issue Date
It was a bleak day indeed when the index case of COVID-19 was discovered
and announced in Nigeria. This swiftly resulted in a series of events that led to
a nationwide lockdown. Businesses shut down, development projects running
multiple community and stakeholder engagements had to put everything on
hold. Everyone began to work from home. It was clear that things had
changed. It was time for innovative thinking.
It was in the midst of all this that CCP-NURHI 2 – a forward thinking, learning
organization – had to figure out how to conduct it’s end of project
dissemination event after 10 years of catalyzing a shift in family planning
social norms in Nigeria.
However, the story does not begin here… this is a story of how we
collaborated with the Government at the Federal and State levels to pull off
the most exciting, first of its kind virtual dissemination events in four locations
- Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna and Oyo.
Where we began: Strategic Engagements
Collaborating with government and civil society structures is not a new or
recent terrain for the NURHI project. We have been wading in those waters
since inception in 2009. However, with the second phase of the project
focused on strengthening government systems and building capacities of
institutional homes, we set out in phase 2 to work with both the Federal and
State governments to navigate the challenges in the system and figure out
waysinwhich we couldimprovethefamilyplanning landscapeinNigeria -and
by extension, improve access to quality primary healthcare. This we did
through visioning exercises, capacity building, mindset shift workshops and
by providing technical assistance (TA)for improved operational effectiveness.
“The Federal Ministry of Health’s
collaboration with the CCP-NURHI
Project commenced on 14th
December 2009…. It is cheering to
note that the CCP-NURHI Project has
successfully supported the Federal
Ministry of Health in her efforts to
ensure a significant reduction in
maternal and infant mortalities
through increasing the uptake of
modern Family Planning methods…”
Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo, Director, Family
Health, Federal Ministry of Health.
“Whilst NURHI created the best
practices, Kaduna State
government and people provided
the leadership and the necessary
supportive environment to ensure
the decade of this productive
investment and partnership being
celebrated today” –
Dr. Hamza Abubakar, Executive
Secretary, Kaduna State Primary
Health Care Development Agency

2. Just to mention a few, the Federal Ministry Of
Health(FMOH) received trainings on SMART advocacy,
which led to the development of a National Advocacy
Strategy document, visioning exercises were conducted
in each of the project states with intensive technical
assistance provided towards the development of State
costed implementation plans (CIPs) for FP.
These strategic engagements gave the government the
confidence to call on NURHI whenever TA was needed to
execute any of their key activities.
Deciding how to tell our decade-old story
When the time finally came to draw out our plans for the
NURHI End-of-Project Dissemination, we had to ask
ourselves, “After ten yearsof collaborative programming, in
what better way could we tell our story than to let those we
worked with tell it themselves?” As the saying goes, better
to hear it “from the horse’s mouth”.
We then set out to engage all our key partners at the State
and Federal levels. The depth of ownership displayed
when the vision for the disseminations was shared with
these stakeholders was amazing. It was clear that
NURHI’s transformative work had not only bought the
goodwill of our government partners; they truly felt that
they had a stake in NURHI’s success (as true stakeholders
should) and thus worked with us as true partners to begin
planning towards the dissemination events. From
deciding the hall to use, to selecting the panel speakers,
event comperes and panel moderators to developing the
PowerPoint presentations, we worked collaboratively
with the ministries of health from start to finish.
Dr. Babatunde Olatunji, Executive Secretary, Primary Health Care Board giving
his Welcome Remarks at the Oyo State Dissemination
Dr. Victoria Omoera, Reproductive Health Coordinator, Lagos State Ministry of
Health, making her presentation
A major setback - Back to the drawing board
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, right in the middle
of all our plans and preparations, NURHI found itself in a place
where innovation and creativity were an absolute requirement
if we were to pull off the dissemination of the decade!
We knew we had to use technology, with the extraordinary
facilities that it provides, but we were still faced with an
innovation challenge – “How do we connect people from multiple
locations in such a way that it retains the essence of a live
dissemination event of that magnitude? How do we ensure that
all our government partners who would speak at the event would
feel safe while also confident that they would be heard by our
proposed audiences?”
We had to go back to the drawing board with these questions
and, from our dynamic team of innovators came the answer: A
virtual livestreaming platform using the mixed methodology of
a live location and multiple virtual rooms through which our
speakers could connect.

3. Despite what appeared to be an impossible situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the transition to a virtual platform
was a landmark in development work dissemination in Nigeria. What was most remarkable about all four events was the
amazing ownership demonstrated by government at all levels in all four locations.
Kaduna: 28 June 2020
Over 350 participants
Lagos : 28July 2020
Over 100 participants
Oyo: 21 July 2020
Over 160 participants
Abuja: 20August 2020
Over 300 participants
“The NURHI project has set the standard for positive
change and leaving no one behind” – Dr. Salma Anas-
Kolo, Director, Family Health, Federal Ministry of Health.
“Being part of this project has brought lot of
innovative ideas into the family planning
programming in Lagos State especially on the
Primary Health Care board” –
Dr. Eniola Erinosho, Director, Medical Services &
Disease Control, Lagos State Primary Health Care
Board
Panelists at the National Level Dissemination Event in Abuja Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo, Director-Family Health, Federal Ministry of Health, giving
her Welcome Remarks at the National Level Dissemination
Pulling it off
In Lagos and Oyo States, the dissemination events each had
one physical location, a hall, where the panelists and
moderators were stationed.
In Kaduna, three halls were used with the panel in one and a live
audience in others. Virtual rooms were reserved for key
presenters such as the donors – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
(BMGF) and TJ Mather, the State Commissioner or Permanent
Secretary for Health and the project consortium partners.
Pulling off the National level dissemination came with a clog in the wheel. With a new line added to the COVID-19 protocol
by the Minister for Health stating that no more than four persons could gather in a room for any meeting, we had to figure
out howto make this work without breaking protocol.Once again, brainstorming with our federallevel stakeholders proved
to be successful. The stage was set right in the office of the Director of Family Health at the Federal Ministry of Health!
Additionally, the offices of the Director of Hospital Services and the Head of Reproductive Health were additional rooms
from which both panelists joined the discussions virtually. It was an amazing set up.