In Kano State, the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria, a subgrantee of the PAS project, continues to provide technical support to host the State’s monthly RI zonal meeting. The zonal meeting offers the opportunity to review Routine Immunization activities at the zonal level in the State. It is an avenue used by the zonal officers under the leadership of the Director of PHC to meet with LGAs team members and discussed PHC services at the zone. 

The meeting chaired by the zonal Director was represented by the zonal Cold Chain Officer (CCO). The CCO welcomed all the participants during the meeting and wished them fruitful deliberations. Update on RI and other PHC services were presented by the different Zonal Program Officers.

However, at the end of the meeting the following key issues were identified:

• Health Facilities target population contributing to the issues of low performance for Makoda LGA
• Most of the participants are not conversant with the 2019 version of DHIS2 platform
• Meeting action points are not followed up regularly

Recommendation

At the end of the meeting, under-listed were recommended:

• Target population for Makoda Health Facilities need to be reviewed
• There is a need for training of the zonal officers and LGA teams on DHIS2 2019 version
• Follow up on the meeting action points that need to be strengthened

While in Lagos State, The Alumni Association of the National Institute, a subgrantee of PAS, produced RI scorecard to determine the implementation status of RI in the State in the last 6 months of 2020

The objective of the scorecard is to determine the implementation status of routine immunization policy in the State from July-December 2020; identify areas of strengths, gaps/weaknesses, and challenges in the State, make recommendations to guide the State and partners in targeting support for improvement and produce a scorecard as an advocacy tool for engaging policymakers.

Data for the scorecard was generated through face-to-face interaction with government officials, Participant interviewed during the RI assessment include the state immunization officer (SIO) at the state level, local immunizations officers (LIO) of five LGAs, made up of Kosofe, Lagos Mainland, Somolu, Mushin, Ifako-Ijaiye and at the facility level five Officers in charge (OIC) of Mende PHC, Abule Nla PHC, Akinwunmi Ambode PHC, Palm Avenue PHC, and Ifako PHC were all interviewed.

Key findings at the state level revealed that of the twelve indicators, there was a decrease in RI taskforce meeting and timely release of Routine Immunization finances, increase in one indicator (adequate Immunization finances appropriated). At the LGA level, most of the 5 LGAs had their target in progress regarding conducting LERICC Meetings, and coverage of Penta1, Penta3, & MCV reached at least 90% for each antigen in the previous month.

At the HF level, most of the 5 HFs had their target in progress regarding coverage of Penta1, Penta3, & MCV reached at least 90% for each antigen in the previous month. The average results recorded in the second half of the year 2020 for the five LGAs & 5 Health Facility were better than the average results recorded in the five LGAs and five Health Facility in the first half of 2020.

 

Next step

• AANI-PAS will disseminate the scorecard findings during RITWG in march 2021
• AANI-PAS will also conduct advocacy visit to the commissioner for health and the commissioner for finance, budget, and planning