UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

Published purpose

The project aims to improve people’s health by rapidly increasing polio immunity and the availability of basic maternal, newborn and child health services in 2,500 hard-to-reach settlements in Jigawa, Niger, Zamfara and Taraba states in northern Nigeria. The project seeks to hire, train, supervise and monitor 50 mobile health teams (with 250 health workers) to procure and deliver polio vaccines. This is expected to strengthen rural health systems and support active surveillance of polio and other diseases. The mobile health teams also provide other health interventions to boost overall health, address urgent health needs and help increase the acceptance of polio vaccination. These include: (1) providing vitamin A and multivitamins to address malnutrition in women and children; (2) providing treatment for pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and other vaccines against preventable diseases; (3) providing preventive health services for pregnant women, such as iron folate; and (4) providing health education on issues such as safe water and sanitation management, the benefits of exclusive breast-feeding, nutrition and maternal health. Project activities include: (1) immunizing children (0-59 months of age) against polio; (2) identifying priority target populations requiring polio immunization, including detailed health team plans, commodities, logistics requirements and a mobile outreach schedule; (3) preparing and producing protocols, training materials and health education materials for outreach teams and populations; (4) conducting community engagement activities to educate people on important health issues; and (5) demonstrating the effectiveness of the mobile outreach approach as a strategy to access hard-to-reach, vulnerable populations, to national, state and local governments for future government-supported scale-up by documenting performance, challenges, lessons learned and value for money. These activities will contribute to the ultimate outcome, now within reach, of eradicating polio in Nigeria.