With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Jhpiego is working in select countries, including Nigeria, to address the COVID-19 pandemic. In Nigeria, RISE is currently working to promote COVID-19 vaccination uptake in the 16 local government areas of Taraba and 25 local government areas in Niger state. RISE intends to build on current technical assistance with additional activities to ensure they are comprehensive. Prioritized activities include: support states’ COVID-19 vaccination planning and micro-planning and tracking of micro plans at state and local government levels; provide technical assistance to enhance field worker data collection and monitoring to strengthen accountability reporting and produce site-specific data for demonstration; and conduct monitoring and supportive supervision to vaccination teams to promote adherence to standards by vaccinators and review supply chain and vaccine potency.

Funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this five-year project builds upon activities funded by CDC to support Global Health Security through implementation of programs and activities that focus on protecting and improving health globally through partnerships with Ministries of Health and other institutions. With an initial emphasis on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, the project is supporting countries—including Nigeria—and carrying out regional work in West Africa and South America to improve prevention of avoidable epidemics, including naturally occurring outbreaks and intentional or accidental releases of dangerous pathogens, and to improve ability to detect threats early and respond rapidly and effectively to public health threats of international concern. The project is being implemented by a Jhpiego-led consortium that includes the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Global Scientific Solutions for Health, and Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health.

Funded by Unitaid, STAR Phase 3 is being implemented by a consortium of partners referred to as the STAR Core team, which includes consortium lead PSI, PATH and Jhpiego, as well as the International Labor Organisation with technical oversight by the World Health Organization. Implemented in seven countries (Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda), STAR Phase 3 is focused on addressing market barriers to HIV self-testing rollout and establishing the structures, systems and oversight mechanisms necessary for the long-term sustainability of HIV self-testing.

In Nigeria, where Jhpiego is the lead partner, STAR Phase 3 activities include facilitating the distribution of more than 260,000 HIVST kits, in complement with Jhpiego’s work though the RISE initiative described above. In addition, Jhpiego is conducting implementation research to assess the acceptability, feasibility, cost and scalability of different Hepatitis C self-testing (HCVST) delivery models in Nigeria, and to leverage existing country-level relationships and the enabling environment created, the infrastructure and capacity built by the HIVST work. The HCVST delivery models target priority populations and people living with HIV. By using several delivery channels, the project is collecting valuable information, resulting in critical recommendations to manufacturers on the best way to expand product availability. Cost-effectiveness models and market research will allow stakeholders to compare cost effectiveness and desirability of HCVST kits to existing program interventions.

Jhpiego serves as a core partner on the Palladium-led Integrated Health Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s main program for primary health care (PHC) in Nigeria. The overall objectives are to strengthen systems supporting PHC services, improve access to PHC services and increase the quality of PHC services. The program is expected to contribute to reductions in child and maternal morbidity and mortality in up to five target states, and to increase the capacity of health systems (public and private) to sustainably support high-quality PHC services. Jhpiego’s role is to support the program’s technical areas of reproductive health, family planning, and maternal and newborn health, including providing support for training and mentoring of providers, while also contributing to the quality assurance and quality improvement aspects of the program.

Funded by MSD, the RICOM3 project is focused on reducing maternal morbidity and mortality from diabetes, hypertension and other indirect causes. RICOM3 is testing a quality of care model to improve prevention, early detection and management of noncommunicable diseases and risk factors in women of reproductive age across the maternal and reproductive health care continuum. This project is implemented by Jhpiego with consortium partners mDoc and the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation.

Moving Integrated, Quality Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services to Scale (MOMENTUM) is a suite of projects, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, that aims to accelerate reductions in maternal, newborn and child mortality and morbidity in high-burden countries by increasing host country commitment and capacity to provide high-quality, integrated health care. Each of the projects has a specific focus area; together they provide a comprehensive, flexible package of support for countries as they overcome context-specific health challenges towards sustainable development. The five-year, Jhpiego-led MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership project focuses on: 1) providing targeted technical and capacity development assistance to our missions, partner countries and local organizations; and 2) contributing to global technical leadership and policy dialogue for improved maternal, newborn and child health, voluntary family planning and reproductive health outcomes. Jhpiego’s 12 sub-partners under this project are: Save the Children, Johns Hopkins University International Vaccine Access Center, The Manoff Group, Quicksand, Matchboxology, BAO Systems, Avenir Health, McKinsey and Company, PACT, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Christian Connections for International Health and Ubora Quality Institute.

In Nigeria, this project is focused on gender-based violence (including intimate partner violence and sexual violence), child early and forced marriage, and early adoption of FP. Interventions are designed to deliver high-quality services that address gender-based violence and child early and forced marriage, as well as voluntary family planning and reproductive health care responsive to population needs. In addition, the project is supporting the strengthening of quality of care (QoC) of maternal, newborn and child health services through national and state-level policy and strategy technical support, learning and research, strengthening of QoC data systems and use of data for decision-making.

Jhpiego provides technical assistance to strengthen quality improvement and leadership and management. This initiative is designed to test and evaluate evidence-based approaches for improving health care provider performance. Under this award, Jhpiego is delivering context-specific technical assistance to support quality improvement and leadership and management strengthening to reinforce national disease responses and strengthened health systems. Jhpiego implements an innovative approach for integrated supportive supervision that includes collaborative improvement, training, a web-enabled supervision checklist and supervision of supervisors to improve integrated health services for underserved populations. Jhpiego also strengthens leadership and management skills among ministry of health staff for quality improvement and improved integrated service delivery in health facilities and communities. The project is being implemented in several African countries, including Nigeria.

With funding from the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) through a Catalytic Opportunity Fund grant, Jhpiego is working to scale up hormonal IUD services in Nigeria. This fund is administered by CHAI and managed by the Hormonal IUD Access Group with the goal of supporting catalytic work to drive scale-up of hormonal IUDs in focus countries. In Nigeria, this project is active in the states of Nasarawa and Ondo. Aligning with the national plan for scaling up hormonal IUDs, Jhpiego is focusing on capacity building of health workers beginning with training of trainers at national, zonal and state levels. Jhpiego also collaborates with Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N) in Nasarawa State to implement activities to drive uptake of hormonal IUD by women and girls, leveraging on existing demand generation activities for effective messaging and access.

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development through Clinical Care and Clinical Research Nigeria, Jhpiego is providing support to the four-year ACE project. Implemented in Kwara and Niger States, the project aims to increase: 1) demand for HIV/AIDS and TB services within primary health care interventions; 2) quality of HIV/AIDS/TB services to provide client-centered, equitable and efficient treatment and to support continued viral suppression; 3) access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services to all populations, especially the underserved and persons with special needs; and 4) resiliency, responsiveness and accountability of the health system to deliver sustainable HIV programs. Jhpiego is leading HIV-prevention activities focused on finding new cases of HIV; this includes implementing proven and innovative strategies for HIV testing and case finding, and scaling-up and integrating pre-exposure prophylaxis and gender-based violence services. Jhpiego is also responsible for strengthening evidence, implementation research and data science for HIV epidemic control including scaling-up of electronic medical records and virtual learning.

Under this two-year project, led by PharmaJet, Jhpiego is conducting a stratified-pair, cluster randomized study in two states of Nigeria. The study is designed to assess the programmatic feasibility, sustainability and scale-up plan for the introduction of the Tropis® injector for inactivated polio vaccine delivery into Nigeria’s Expanded Programme on Immunization. The PharmaJet Tropis injection system is a hand-held device, prequalified by the World Health Organization, that delivers precise intradermal injections without needles. If the evaluation results are positive, this new method for administering vaccines could accelerate uptake of polio and other vaccines, thereby bolstering the global health community’s ability to prevent disease and save more lives. This award is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Development Innovation Ventures.