Nigeria Family Planning Baseline Assessment

Background

The Nigeria Family Planning program’s main objective was to improve access to voluntary family planning (FP) services in four Nigerian states: the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Plateau, Oyo, and Akwa Ibom. SHOPS Plus implemented a multi-year approach to increase contraceptive use among couples of reproductive age, particularly long-acting reversible contraceptives, by increasing the capability of public and private providers to deliver quality FP services and improving the quality of FP counseling and service delivery. To achieve this, this program developed a training approach that included enriching support supervision and strengthening complementary systems that promote quality improve and data management for decision-making.

Prior to training, SHOPS Plus conducted a baseline assessment of FP service delivery capacity in private and public health facilities across the four states.

Objectives/research questions

The objectives of the baseline assessment were to:

• Collected health facility data in the four states to identify health workers that needed to be trained on FP services
• Provide robust evidence on existing FP service delivery skill and capacity gaps that were critical to SHOPS Plus planning and implementation

Methods

A quantitative survey was administered to the primary decision-maker in public and private facilities. A total of 1,150 public and private facilities were sampled across all six local area council’s in FCT and all 17 local government areas in Plateau during Phase 1. An additional 256 public and private facilities were sampled in six local government areas in both Oyo and Akwa Ibom during Phase 2. The assessment included data on:

• Facility infrastructure (source of electricity/water, medical waste disposal, number of rooms, essential equipment inventory, telephone/internet access, ambulance)
• Types of non-FP services offered (ANC/PNC, general outpatient, HIV services, malaria)
• Types of FP services offered (methods, client flow, counseling and service provision protocols)
• Human resources (total number of staff by cadre, number of staff trained to provide FP services including various long-acting methods, such as IUDs and implants, number of staff that provide FP services)
• Lab and pharmacy services (availability of lab services, availability of FP commodities and current stocks)
• Health management information systems

SHOPS Plus used this information to then identify health workers that needed to be trained on FP services and to inform planning and implementation of the training program to address service delivery skill and capacity gaps.

Status: Phase 1 – Complete; Phase 2 - Complete 
Last updated: August 2020    

Resource

• Biting Off More Than You Can CHEW: What a Baseline Assessment Reveals about Community Health Workers in FCT and Plateau State

Learn more about our work in Nigeria  and Family Planning.

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