Population Council

AFRICA
Nigeria

The Population Council’s involvement in Nigeria began in the 1960s when it collaborated with the Ministry of Health to implement a safe motherhood project in Calabar, a region in southeastern Nigeria. From then until 2005, the Council undertook occasional operations research projects in Nigeria that were managed from New York, Nairobi, or the Council's regional office in Accra. In 2006, the Council established a Nigeria country office in Abuja charged with carrying out a four-year cooperative agreement with USAID (funded under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) to develop the capacity of local institutions to undertake HIV prevention programs among vulnerable youth in northern Nigeria.

Program Focus

In the past, Council work in Nigeria focused on operations research in reproductive health and family planning. This work included testing interventions to reduce maternal mortality, assessing the prevalence of unsafe abortion, training researchers to conduct situation analyses, and testing interventions to promote dual-protection practices among women and their male partners. Since 2006 the Council has focused heavily on the prevention of HIV infection among vulnerable youth in northern Nigeria, as it implements activities supported through its four-year partnership with USAID. These activities aim to strengthen the capacity of Nigerian organizations, including faith-based organizations, to design, manage, support, monitor, and expand HIV-prevention activities for young people. Emphasis is on addressing the particular vulnerabilities of married adolescent girls, taking into account cultural contexts.

In the next five years, Council staff will also undertake intervention research to reduce HIV transmission and maternal morbidity and mortality, especially among first-time mothers.

Highlights of Present and Past Work

Conduct workshops to train community-level advocates to provide HIV/AIDS prevention information to pre-and postmarital adolescent girls, as well as key community stakeholders including religious and community leaders, politicians, heads of households, mothers-in-law, and husbands of married adolescents.
Train community advocates to link young girls with HIV counseling and testing, screening for sexually transmitted infections, premarital religious/spiritual counseling, antenatal clinic visits, maternal and child health clinics, prevention of vertical transmission testing, and anteretroviral therapy for HIV-positive individuals.
Conducted research to highlight the potential risk factors for HIV infection among married adolescent girls in northern Nigeria.
Organized and conducted participatory rapid-development radio workshops that brought together various stakeholders interested in protecting young girls by delaying marriage and staying in school. Over a one-week period, participants developed, produced, and pre-tested a series of radio spots, which were then aired and reinforced with a series of popular radio call-in shows. The project hopes to continue, and to introduce similar rapid radio-message development and dissemination activities across the country.
Conducted “Days of Dialogue,” a series of consultations and trainings with religious leaders and faith-based organizations that establish a common platform for discussing issues of health, marriage, and education for young girls from a religious perspective.

Selected Projects

Current Project

Addressing Child Marriage in Northern Nigeria (11/05–11/09)

Completed Project

Horizons project
- Promoting Dual-Protection Practices Among Women and Their Male Partners in Ibadan, Nigeria (completed 10/02)