Background

The dRPC has been engaged in working with traditional & religious leaders in Northern Nigeria on social sector issues for over 20 years. It is against this background that it sought the investment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to work with the Emir of Kano’s Health Committee to improve access to services for women and girls in their Emirate.

The overall vision of success for this investment is one of an empowered and self-directed Emir’s project impacting positively on women and girls of the state and serving as a model for development partners and for Emirs of neighboring states

The principal results of this intervention are to:

• Strengthen the capacity of the Health Committee of the Emirate Council to implement the Emir’s vision for improved social sector development, targeting women and girls of the state
• Improve the accountability and responsiveness of  government social sector service delivery agencies by incorporating  the traditional institution at Emirate, district, ward and village level in the monitoring and supervision of service delivery
• Improve commitment to girl child education and uptake of services in host communities of the Emir’s project and increased learning from these achievements by Emirs in neighbouring states  and traditional leaders in neighboring West African countries

These results are designed to transform the problem of poor and ineffective inclusion of the traditional leaders in social sector programs in Northern Nigeria.  These results will provide the technical and administrative support to enable the Emir, working through the Health Committee and its ward, village and district heads to mobilize communities for improved access to services for women and girls; to identify gaps and gender bias in the delivery of services; and to support the public health and social sector agencies in government such as the State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the Ministry of Education for remedial action. The achievement of these results will also impact on neighbouring states as Emirs will be supported to replicate this model and best practices will be disseminated to Emirs in neighbouring Emirates and West African countries.

Expected Output

1. 14 community outreach visits conducted by the Emir and the Health Committee to the main PHC/community hub of the local governments in Kano state. During each community outreach, the Emir will meet health officials, teachers, community leaders and members of the community to communicate messages on – 1)  the importance of accessing and providing quality social sector services for women and girls in particular;  and 2) the imperative of girls’ completing their education and supported to find employment in community nursing, teaching and learning income generating skills
2. 9 quarterly meetings will be held of the Health Committee of the Emirate Council to plan and coordinate the Emir’s social sector community outreach visits
3. 3 orientation meetings with 20 village, ward and district heads convened by the Health Committee to develop their capacity and skills to monitor the uptake and quality of social services for girls’ education, maternal health and immunization in their domains
4. Institutional capacity building support to the NGO Iyalen Dabo Mata (the female family of the Royal House) to support the girls education component of the project to monitor – girls’ completing their education and supported to find employment in community nursing, teaching and learning income generating skills
5. 36 monthly information briefs developed for uptake by the Emir of Kano to inform his activities and pronouncements on the state of social sector development and impact for women and girls in the 44 LGAs of Kano State
6. 3 traditional leaders from neighboring states establishing and engaging in health and girls education through Health Committees
7. 2 best practices dissemination workshops to share the experiences of the project with Emirs of neighboring states and West African countries and with the development community working on integrating traditional leaders social sector programs which benefit women and girls.