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Nigeria
became a member of the Alliance in
2002.
•
As
a first step to its membership, Nigeria
established a South-South secretariat
at the Department of International
Co-operation of the National Planning
Commission. In further preparation,
Nigeria, through its national UNFPA
office and the PPD Secretariat, conducted
a nationwide needs assessment to identify
gaps and strengths in population and
RH policies and programmes. To complement
its findings, Nigeria sent out 3 eight-member
delegations from its federal and state
levels to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe
in December 1999, followed by a nationwide
dissemination seminar on South-South
partnerships.
•
In
September 2005 Nigeria organized a
National Dissemination Workshop under
VLP project. At the end of the two
and half years of successful project
implementation, the NDWs identified
and promoted a group of committed
and trained visionary leaders in population
and reproductive health. The principal
objective of the NDWs was to share
experiences and “showcase”
the actions and achievements of the
VLP participants (known as “VLP
Fellows”) in their professional
capacity and as VLP graduates.
•
Further,
Nigeria sent an 11-member delegation
headed by the Minister of Health to
the 2001 Kochi Technical Consultative
Meeting on Commodity Security organised
by PPD in India.
•
In
the last 10 years, Nigeria has intensified
efforts in its programmes on family
planning and population and on development
issues. Nigeria is the Chair of the
ECOWAS initiative aimed at reversing
the trend in human trafficking.
•
The
civil society in Nigeria is involved
with South-South partnerships with
their counterparts in the developing
countries who have similar socio-economic
environments and challenges. Many
Nigerian NGOs are members of the Reproductive
Health Partnership for NGOs in Sub
Saharan Africa. AMANITARE is a network
of African feminists working in the
area of SRH. In 2002, the group organised
a skills exchange in Abuja which was
attended by 30 participants from the
region. In 2003, the group held a
regional conference with 200 participants
from the region as well as from Asia
and Latin America.
•
Among
other Nigerian efforts, an e-forum
for debate and information dissemination
was created by Journalists against
AIDS (JAIDS), in addition to publishing
a media handbook with other NGOs.
•
A
project entitled “Securing Political
Support for Population Programmes
and Policies” was initiated
to sensitise major key stakeholders
including members of the legislative
houses on population and development.
To facilitate the process, the Resources
for the Awareness of Population in
Development (RAPID) was developed
in 1998 and revised in 2002.
•
Nigeria
gained from PPD’s Visionary
Leadership Programme in Kano with
the training of 63 fellows and the
establishment of a national anchor
institute, AHIP, to give support to
the fellows.
•
The “I Need to Know” television
series was launched in 1999 through
UNFPA to address RH concerns of adolescents
and to empower them to seek answers
from their parents and other gatekeepers
about sexuality and health.
•
Nigeria
has been actively involved in PPD
agenda as can be seen in the many
undertakings. The country has been
successful in organising:
-
Study tours to Kenya, Uganda and
Zimbabwe to promote contact and
strengthen the operational capacity
of project managers and policy makers;
- Study
tours to Indonesia and Kenya for
2 members of the 2 House Committee
on population and development to
gain first hand information on political
leadership in population and development,
in predominantly Islamic and Christian
countries;
- Strengthening
country capacity for training in
population planning;
- Training
of master trainers in integration
of population factors in planning;
- Organising
dialogue meeting with parliamentarians
and sensitisation seminar for Directors
of Planning and their Permanent
Secretaries.
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