Scale-up of the DMPA-SC in Nigeria: Why policy matters.

BACKGROUND: Injectable contraceptives have contributed substantially to Nigeria's rise in modern family planning methods usage. They are one of the most commonly used and preferred means of contraception among women in the country. Enabling policies are required to assure contraceptive access, security, and use. This study aimed to investigate the policy environment and how it supports or limits Nigeria's introduction and scale-up of subcutaneous depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-SC). METHODS: The design of this mixed-methods study was cross-sectional. Desk reviews of policy papers, key informant interviews, and in-depth interviews were used to obtain information from respondents about the introduction of DMPA-SC in Nigeria and how existing policies influenced its scale-up. Data on DMPA-SC and other injectables were gathered from Nigeria's national electronic logistics management information system. RESULTS: The findings suggest that policies such as task-shifting and task-sharing, cost-free policies, reproductive health policies, and others created an enabling environment for the scale-up of DMPA-SC adoption in Nigeria. The inclusion of DMPA-SC on the essential medicines list and the approved patent medicines list facilitated the scale-up process by ensuring private sector participation, removing economic barriers to access, fostering greater collaboration among health worker cadres, improving intersectoral partnerships, and improving logistics and client access. Despite significant anomalies in some implementing policies, injectable contraceptive consumption data demonstrate a progressive increase in DMPA-SC use during the study period. The results also indicate that policy initiatives have a favorable impact on the use of DMPA-SC throughout the country. CONCLUSION: The existence of policies, the active participation of stakeholders, and the political will of the Nigerian health system's leadership have all aided in the scaling-up of the DMPA-SC. Understanding how to build an enabling policy climate is critical for providing women with family planning options. These lessons from Nigeria emphasize the importance of these levers, which should be considered by teams intending to introduce innovative health products, particularly in developing countries.

Assessment of the level and distribution of health system responsiveness in Oyo State, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Health systems need to be evaluated to ascertain if they are meeting their objectives. There is an increased interest in health system responsiveness (HSR) as a means to appraise health systems. This becomes vital as we put people at the centre of integrated health systems and put a premium on their rights and perspectives. Thus, this study assessed the levels, distribution and factors associated with HSR in Oyo State. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional study with 717 adults, who had used an out-patient health facility in the preceding 12 months, interviewed using a semi-structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. HSR was measured on a multi-domain and multi-item (7 domains and 20 items) 5-point Likert scale that was developed by the WHO to measure HSR globally. Summary scores were computed for level, distribution and the most important domains of HSR. Determinants of poor HSR were determined using binomial logistic regression. The level of statistical significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: The overall level of HSR was 47%. The highest-rated domains were confidentiality (72%), dignity (64%) and choice (60%), while the least rated were prompt attention (43%) and communication (52%). The overall distribution of HSR was 0.228 (range of 0 to 1) with the domains of prompt attention (0.595) and choice (0.506) being the most unequally distributed. The most important domains were communication, prompt attention and dignity. The least important domains were choice and confidentiality. The factors associated with poor HSR (overall) were no formal education, (OR = 2.81; 95% CI: 1.35-5.86), primary education as the highest level of education (OR = 2.19; 95% CI: 1.28-3.75), poor socioeconomic class (OR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.23-2.80), using a government-owned facility (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 1.11-2.19) and not using the usual health facility (OR = 1.69; 95% CI: 1.13-2.53). CONCLUSIONS: The overall level of HSR in Oyo State was low with the domains of prompt attention, communication and autonomy being the least rated domains. Therefore, concerted efforts should be targeted at improving HSR as this will improve wellbeing, health system utilization, and the overall health system.

Conflict, community, and collaboration: shared implementation barriers and strategies in two polio endemic countries.

BACKGROUND: Afghanistan and Nigeria are two of the three remaining polio endemic countries. While these two countries have unique sociocultural characteristics, they share major polio risk factors. This paper describes the countries' shared contexts and highlights important lessons on implementing polio eradication activities among hard-to-reach populations relevant for future global health programs. METHODS: A grey literature review of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) followed by an online survey was conducted in both countries. The survey was targeted to individuals who have been involved continuously in polio eradication activities for 12 months or more since 1988. A sub-set of respondents from the survey was recruited for key-informant interviews (KII). The survey and KIIs were conducted between September 2018-April 2019. A cross-case comparison analysis was conducted to describe shared implementation challenges, strategies, and unintended consequences of polio eradication activities across these contexts. RESULTS: Five hundred thirteen and nine hundred twenty-one surveys were completed in Afghanistan and Nigeria respectively; 28 KIIs were conducted in Afghanistan and 29 in Nigeria. Major polio eradication activities in both countries include house-to-house campaigns, cross-border stations, outreach to mobile populations, and surveillance. Common barriers to these activities in both countries include civil unrest and conflict; competing political agendas; and vaccine refusal, fatigue, and mistrust, all of which are all bases for describing hard-to-reach populations. Both countries employed strategies to engage community leadership, political and religious groups through advocacy visits, and recruited community members to participate in program activities to address misconceptions and distrust. Recruitment of female workers has been necessary for accessing women and children in conservative communities. Synergy with other health programs has been valuable; health workers have improved knowledge of the communities they serve which is applicable to other initiatives. CONCLUSIONS: The power of community engagement at all levels (from leadership to membership) cannot be overstated, particularly in countries facing civil unrest and insecurity. Workforce motivation, community fatigue and mistrust, political priorities, and conflict are intricately interrelated. Community needs should be holistically assessed and addressed;programs must invest in the needs of health workers who engage in these long-term health programs, particularly in unsafe areas, to alleviate demotivation and fatigue.

Evaluating the process of partnership and research in global health: reflections from the STRIPE project.

BACKGROUND: Thoughtful and equitable engagement with international partners is key to successful research. STRIPE, a consortium of 8 academic and research institutions across the globe whose objective is to map, synthesize, and disseminate lessons learned from polio eradication, conducted a process evaluation of this partnership during the project's first year which focused on knowledge mapping activities. METHODS: The STRIPE consortium is led by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in partnership with 6 universities and 1 research consultancy organization in polio free, at-risk, and endemic countries. In December 2018 JHU team members submitted written reflections on their experiences (n = 9). We held calls with each consortium member to solicit additional feedback (n = 7). To establish the partnership evaluation criteria we conducted preliminary analyses based on Blackstock's framework evaluating participatory research. In April 2019, an in-person consortium meeting was held; one member from each institution was asked to join a process evaluation working group. This group reviewed the preliminary criteria, adding, subtracting, and combining as needed; the final evaluation criteria were applied to STRIPE's research process and partnership and illustrative examples were provided. RESULTS: Twelve evaluation criteria were defined and applied by each member of the consortium to their experience in the project. These included access to resources, expectation setting, organizational context, external context, quality of information, relationship building, transparency, motivation, scheduling, adaptation, communication and engagement, and capacity building. For each criteria members of the working group reflected on general and context-specific challenges and potential strategies to overcome them. Teams suggested providing more time for recruitment, training, reflection, pre-testing. and financing to alleviate resource constraints. Given the large scope of the project, competing priorities, and shifting demands the working group also suggested a minimum of one full-time project coordinator in each setting to manage resources. CONCLUSION: Successful management of multi-country, multicentered implementation research requires comprehensive communication tools (which to our knowledge do not exist yet or are not readily available), expectation setting, and institutional support. Capacity building activities that address human resource needs for both individuals and their institutions should be incorporated into early project planning.

Innovation diffusion: how homogenous networks influence the uptake of community-based injectable contraceptives.

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that social networks influence health behaviors, including the adoption of health innovations. This study explored the potential for early adopters of community health worker-delivered injectable contraceptives (CHWDIC) to influence the uptake of this innovation by women in their social networks. METHODS: This Social Network Analysis (SNA) study was conducted in Gombe, Nigeria. Twenty women who were early adopters of the CHWDIC were recruited. Each participant (ego) listed ten women of reproductive age (alters) with whom they related. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect from each ego, data about the nature of her relationship with each alter (ego-alter relationship), whether she talked about CHWDIC with each alter, and whether her listed alters talked to each other about CHWDIC (alter-alter relationship). Data were also collected on age, marital status and education level for each ego and alter. Data were analyzed with UCINET social network analysis software. Variables of interest include homophilia (similarity), density (number of ties as a proportion of possible ties), degree (popularity) and betweeness (frequency of connecting actor pairs who otherwise might not communicate). RESULTS: There were 20 egos and 200 alters. Between two thirds (alters) and three quarters (egos) of the women were 30 years or older. All of the egos and 196 (98%) of alters were married. Most of the networks had similar (homophilic) actors according to certain sociodemographic characteristics - ethnicity, age, education and type of marriage. More than 90% of the networks had density greater than 50%, suggesting high cohesion in most networks. The majority of actors in these networks used injectable contraceptives. In some of the networks, few actors with the highest prominence (betweeness centrality) were not users of injectable contraceptives. CONCLUSION: The study illustrates the application and feasibility of ego SNA in identifying champions and opinion leaders among women of reproductive age group. It also shows the influence of social networks on the diffusion of community-based injectable contraceptives, and how homophilic and dense networks may have positive health externality. The interrelatedness of network members' decision to adopt a health innovation was also demonstrated by the findings of this study.

Health system readiness for innovation scale-up: the experience of community-based distribution of injectable contraceptives in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Following the successful pilot of the community-based distribution of injectable contraceptives (CBDIC) by community health extension workers (CHEWs) in Gombe, northern Nigeria in 2010, there was a policy decision to scale-up the innovation to other parts of the country. However, there is limited understanding of health system factors that may facilitate or impede the successful scale-up of this innovation beyond the pilot site. Thus, this study assessed the health system readiness to deliver CBDIC in Nigeria and how this may influence the scale-up process. METHODS: This study was conducted in two Local Government Areas in Gombe State in September 2016. Seven key informant interviews were held with purposively sampled senior officials of the ministries of health at the federal and state levels as well as NGO program managers. Also, 10 in-depth interviews were carried out with health workers. All transcripts were analyzed using the thematic framework analysis approach. RESULT: The availability of a policy framework that supports task-shifting and task-sharing, as well as application of evidence from the pilot programme and capacity building programmes for health workers provided a favourable environment for scale-up. Health system challenges for the scale-up process included insufficient community health workers, resistance to the task-shifting policy from professional health groups (who should support the CHEWs), limited funding and poor logistics management which affected commodity distribution and availability. However, there were also a number of health worker innovations which kept the scale-up going. Health workers sometimes used personal resources to make up for logistics failures and poor funding. They often modify the process in order to adapt to the realities on the ground. CONCLUSION: This study shows health system weaknesses that may undermine scale-up of CBDIC. The study also highlights what happens when scale-up is narrowly focused on the intervention without considering system context, capacity and readiness. However, agency and discretionary decision-making among frontline health workers facilitated the process of scaling up, although the sustainability of this is questionable. Benefits observed during the pilot may not be realised on a larger scale if health system challenges are not addressed.

Qualitative Exploration of factors affecting Uptake and Demand for Contraception and other Family Planning Services in North-West Nigeria.

In spite of the improvements in knowledge about family planning (FP), the contraceptive prevalence rate and unmet need for FP remain poor in most parts of Northern Nigeria. This study sought to explore specific factors that influence contraceptive uptake and demand in North-West Nigeria. Key Informant and In-depth Interviews were conducted using guides among stakeholders in two selected states in North-West Nigeria, Kebbi and Sokoto States. Interviewees were selected purposively to include Reproductive Health Focal Persons at the local government level, service providers, Women of Reproductive Age (WRA) and FP coordinators. Factors inhibiting contraceptive uptake included lack of health education, religion, fear of spousal rejection and side effects. Poor government funding and inadequate number of health workers were also identified as systemic factors. Suggested methods of overcoming identified challenges include; task-shifting, increased stakeholder participation and political will.

Do knowledge and cultural perceptions of modern female contraceptives predict male involvement in Ayete, Nigeria?

Male involvement is crucial to female contraceptive use. This study examined how male knowledge and cultural perceptions of modern female contraceptives influence involvement in contraceptive use. A cross-sectional survey of 389 men from Ayete, Nigeria was used to regress a continuous male involvement score on demographic variables, knowledge of at least one method of modern female contraception and a scored male perception variable using Ordinary Least Squares regression. Controlling for perception, the knowledge of at least one method of modern female contraception was not significantly associated with a change in male involvement (p=0.264). Increasing positive perception was associated with higher male involvement scores (p=0.001). Higher educated males, those with a current desire to have children and males whose partners were currently using a method had greater male involvement scores (p<0.05). Policy and intervention efforts should be focused on changing cultural perceptions, in addition to providing in-depth knowledge of contraceptive methods.

Biases and limitations in observational studies of Long COVID prevalence and risk factors: A rapid systematic umbrella review.

BACKGROUND: Observational studies form the foundation of Long COVID knowledge, however combining data from Long COVID observational studies has multiple methodological challenges. This umbrella review synthesizes estimates of Long COVID prevalence and risk factors as well as biases and limitations in the primary and review literatures. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A systematic literature search was conducted using multiple electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, LitCOVID) from Jan 1, 2019 until June 9, 2023. Eligible studies were systematic reviews including adult populations assessed for at least one Long COVID symptom four weeks or more after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Overall and subgroup prevalence and risk factors as well as risk of bias (ROB) assessments were extracted and descriptively analyzed. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42023434323). Fourteen reviews of 5-196 primary studies were included: 8 reported on Long COVID prevalence, 5 on risk/protective factors, and 1 on both. Prevalence of at least 1 Long COVID symptom ranged from 21% (IQR: 8.9%-35%) to 74.5% (95% CI: 55.6%-78.0%). Risk factor reviews found significant associations between vaccination status, sex, acute COVID-19 severity, and comorbidities. Both prevalence and risk factor reviews frequently identified selection and ascertainment biases. Using the AMSTAR 2 criteria, the quality of included reviews, particularly the prevalence reviews, were concerning for the adequacy of ROB assessments and justifications for conducting meta-analysis. CONCLUSION: A high level of heterogeneity render the interpretation of pooled prevalence estimates of Long COVID challenging, further hampered by the lack of robust critical appraisals in the included reviews. Risk factor reviews were of higher quality overall and suggested consistent associations between Long COVID risk and patient characteristics.

Why Acute Undernutrition? A Qualitative Exploration of Food Preferences, Perceptions and Factors Underlying Diet in Adolescent Girls in Rural Communities in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent girls are nutritionally vulnerable due to their rapid growth and increased nutrient requirements. Nigeria has the sixth-largest population in the world. This study qualitatively explored the food preferences, perceptions of nutritive value and factors underlying food consumption of adolescent girls in rural communities in Nigeria. METHODS: The data were collected via the free listing of foods and focus group sessions conducted in the Hausa language with 48 unmarried adolescent girls. The discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed using a deductive thematic framework. RESULTS: The mean age of the respondents was 13.0 ± 2.7, and almost half (48%) had a primary school education. A total of 19 and 23 foods were identified as preferred, and perceived as nourishing, respectively. The top 10 foods present on both free lists overlapped considerably in terms of cognitive salience. The focus group themes included nutrition knowledge, food preferences, autonomy, household food allocation, courtship practices, and agricultural landscapes and economic access. The participants had minimal knowledge of nutrients and food groups, and their preferred foods were limited in diversity. The key factors in food preferences were desirable health effects, sensory attributes, and the contribution of foods to a desirable body image for marriage. Household food choices depended on parents. Thus, a desire for independence was an incentive for early marriage, mostly at 13 to 17 years. Gender inequities in household food distribution (quantity) and animal protein intake were reported. The participants believed that boys need more food for strength to impregnate girls. As part of a courtship practice, the girls received gifts of animal source foods from potential suitors. The food options were limited by financial challenges and low agricultural diversity. CONCLUSION: To interrupt the cycle of inadequate food consumption and undernutrition in these adolescent girls, policy makers need to promote nutrition education and address the underlying determinants of inequitable access to nutritious foods.

Correction: Experiences of doctoral students enrolled in a research fellowship program to support doctoral training in Africa (2014 to 2018): The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa odyssey.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252863.].

Nigerian resident doctors on strike: insights from and policy implications of job satisfaction among resident doctors in a Nigerian teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVES: The Nigerian health system has been engulfed in a crisis occasioned by a deluge of strike actions by resident doctors in recent times. Dissatisfaction with conditions of service has been cited as the bone of contention. Job satisfaction studies among doctors have provided insights into the contributory factors to recurrent industrial disputes in other climes. This study aims to determine the predictors of job satisfaction among resident doctors in a tertiary healthcare centre in Nigeria. This is with a view to gain some insights into the possible contributory factors to industrial disputes and to discuss the policy implications of such findings. METHODS: A semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain socio-demographic characteristics and job-related determinants of job satisfaction among resident doctors. Logistic regression analysis was carried out to determine predictors of job satisfaction. FINDINGS: A total of 163 resident doctors completed the study. Overall, 90 (55.2%) of the resident doctors were satisfied with their jobs. Lower age, career advancement opportunities, autonomy of practice, alignment of job with core personal and professional values, and working environment predicted job satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: To restore satisfaction and possibly stem industrial disputes by resident doctors, government of Nigeria needs to sustain current wages while introducing non-financial benefits. There is a need to adopt policies geared towards increasing government spending on health especially in the area of human capacity and infrastructural development, so as to afford resident doctors opportunities for skill acquisition and career development.

"What Are You Really Doing in This Country?": Emigration Intentions of Nigerian Doctors and Their Policy Implications for Human Resource for Health Management.

The emigration of doctors from Nigeria has been on the increase in recent years, with no obvious efforts to manage or mitigate the negative impacts of this growing trend on the already weak health system. This study assessed the emigration intentions of doctors undergoing residency training at the premier tertiary healthcare center in Nigeria and the factors that influence these intentions. This mixed-method study was cross-sectional in design. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to identify the factors that influence the emigration intentions of resident doctors at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria. In-depth interviews (IDIs) were also conducted to further explore the push and pull factors identified from the survey and their migration preferences. A total of 244 resident doctors completed the questionnaires and 10 participated in the IDIs. Overall, 57.4% of the respondents had emigration intentions and 34.8% had made various attempts at emigrating. Major factors that encouraged resident doctors to emigrate to developed countries included better working and living conditions, good salary and the opportunity for career advancement in destination countries. Family ties was the single most important factor that deterred resident doctors from emigrating. The UK was found to be the top preferred destination. Strategic approaches and multisectoral collaborations will be required to address doctors' emigration from Nigeria. These efforts should be targeted at not just the health sector but should also include the social and economic aspects of the lives of resident doctors, to improve their living conditions.

Towards improvement in malaria policy implementation in Nigeria: a qualitative study on factors influencing the translation of malaria policies to practice.

BACKGROUND: Malaria is a severe health issue in Nigeria, particularly for pregnant women and children <5 y of age, despite all malaria control programs. From the standpoint of major stakeholders in Nigeria, this study explored both promoting and limiting factors affecting the implementation of malaria policy. METHODS: From March to June 2019, in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 key respondents. Key informants such as malaria researchers, policy advisers and program managers were identified using purposive and snowballing sampling strategies. Interviews were performed in English, recorded, transcribed and analysed using QSR NVivo 11. RESULTS: Some of the variables increasing the implementation of malaria policies in Nigeria, according to respondents, were political will, access to funds from donors, and staff commitment. Insufficient planning, lack of commitment, poor finance, manpower shortages, and a lack of synergy between academics and policymakers, on the other hand, were recognized as important barriers to the malaria policy implementation process by respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Implementation gaps may result from a lack of capability for the policy implementation process and a lack of support for policy objectives. The difficulties in implementing malaria policy in Nigeria were highlighted in this study, and relevant recommendations were made.

Reaching out to men in ending intimate partner violence: a qualitative study among male civil servants in Ibadan, Nigeria.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of male civil servants in Ibadan, Nigeria about the perpetration of IPV and to document their suggested measures to prevent IPV in our communities in Nigeria. METHODS: Four focus group discussions were conducted among 36 male civil servants selected from Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan using purposive sampling technique. Data were transcribed and analysed using thematic approach. RESULTS: Six major themes were identified; awareness of the forms of IPV, women and men as victims, causes, attitude, consequences as well as the suggested strategies for the prevention of IPV. Physical and psychological abuse were mentioned across the groups. The respondents pointed out that women experience IPV more than men, but that men also experience it. Some respondents stated that physical and psychological abuse against female intimate partners were acceptable in some circumstances according to the societal norms. The negative effects of IPV on physical, mental and social well-being of the individual, families and society were mentioned. Suggested ways of preventing IPV include tolerance and patience which will promote healthy, respectful and non-violent relationships among intimate partners. CONCLUSION: Considering the perceptions and attitudes of these men to IPV, it is important to reach out to both genders for appropriate preventive and educational intervention in ending IPV among women and men.

A qualitative exploration of the contributions of Polio Eradication Initiative to the Nigerian health system: policy implications for polio transition planning.

BACKGROUND: The Nigerian health care system is weak due to lack of coordination, fragmentation of services by donor funding of vertical services, dearth and poor distribution of resources, and inadequate infrastructures. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative has supported the country's health system and provided strategies and skills which need to be documented for use by other health programs attempting disease control or eradication. This study, therefore, explored the contributions of the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) activities to the operations of other health programs within the Nigerian health system from the perspectives of frontline workers and managers. METHODS: This cross-sectional qualitative study used key informant interviews (KIIs) and inductive thematic analysis. Twenty-nine KIIs were conducted with individuals who have been involved continuously in PEI activities for at least 12 months since the program's inception. This research was part of a more extensive study, the Synthesis and Translation of Research and Innovations from Polio Eradication (STRIPE), conducted in 2018. The KII tool focused on four major themes: work experience in other health programs, similarities and differences between polio programs and other health programs, contributions of polio programs, and missed opportunities for implementing polio lessons. All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using a thematic framework. RESULTS: The implementation of the PEI has increased health promotion activities and coverage of maternal and child health interventions through the development of tangible and intangible resources, building the capacities of health workers and discovering innovations. The presence of a robust PEI program within a weakened health system of similar programs lacking such extensive support led to a shift in health workers' primary roles. This was perceived to reduce human resources efforts in rural areas with a limited workforce, and to affect other programs' service delivery. CONCLUSION: The PEI has made a notable impact on the Nigerian health system. There should be hastened efforts to transition these resources from the PEI into other programs where there are missed opportunities and future control programs. The primary health care managers should continue integration efforts to ensure that programs leverage opportunities within successful programs to improve the health of the community members.

A light touch intervention with a heavy lift - gender, space and risk in a global vaccination programme.

Frontline workers (FLWs) in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative go door-to-door delivering polio vaccine to children. They have played a pivotal role in eliminating wild polio from most countries on earth; at the same time, they face significant bodily risk. STRIPE, an international consortium, conducted a mixed-methods study exploring the knowledge and experiences of polio staff in seven countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Nigeria). We surveyed 826 polio FLWs and conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 of them. We used a body work framework to guide analysis. Polio workers perform a different kind of body work than many other FLWs. Delivering a few drops of oral vaccine takes a light touch, but gendered spaces can make the work physically dangerous. Polio's FLWs must bend or break gendered space norms as they move from house-to-house. Navigating male spaces carries risk for women, including lethal risk, particularly in conflict settings. Workers manoeuvre between skeptical community members and the demands of supervisors which generates emotional labour. Providing FLWs with more power to make operational decisions and providing them with robust teams and remuneration would improve the likelihood that they could act to improve their working conditions.

Qualitative exploration of health system response to COVID-19 pandemic applying the WHO health systems framework: Case study of a Nigerian state.

Pandemics can result in significantly high rates of morbidity and mortality with higher impact in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries like Nigeria. Health systems have an important role in a multi-sector response to pandemics, as there are already concerns that COVID-19 will significantly divert limited health care resources. This study appraised the readiness and resilience of the Nigerian health system to the COVID-19 pandemic, using Oyo State, southwest Nigeria, as a case study. This study was a cross-sectional qualitative study involving key informant and in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was used in recruiting participants who were members of the Task Force on COVID-19 in the state and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) members (physicians, nurses, laboratory scientists, "contact tracers", logistic managers) and other partners. The state's health system response to COVID 19 was assessed using the WHO health systems framework. Audio recordings of the interviews done in English were transcribed and thematic analysis of these transcripts was carried out using NVIVO software. Results show that the state government responded promptly by putting in place measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the response was not adequate owing to the fact that the health system has already been weakened by various challenges like poor funding of the health system, shortage of human resources and inadequate infrastructure. These contributed to the health system's sub-optimal response to the pandemic. In order to arm the health system for adequate and appropriate response during major health disasters like pandemics, fundamental pillars of the health system-finance, human resources, information and technology, medical equipment and leadership - need to be addressed in order to have a resilient health system.

Translating Implementation Experiences and Lessons Learned From Polio Eradication Into a Global Health Course: Insights From an International Consortium.

Lessons learned from one global health program can inform responses to challenges faced by other programs. One way to disseminate these lessons is through courses. However, such courses are often delivered by and taught to people based in high-income countries and thus may not present a truly global perspective. The Synthesis and Translation of Research and Innovations from Polio Eradication (STRIPE) is a consortium of 8 institutions in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the United States that seeks to carry out such a transfer of the lessons learned in polio eradication. This short report describes the collaborative process of developing content and curriculum for an international course, the learnings that emerged, the barriers we faced, and recommendations for future similar efforts. Various parts of our course were developed by teams of researchers from countries across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. We held a series of regional in-person team meetings hosted in different countries to improve rapport and provide a chance to work together in person. The course content reflects the diversity of team members' knowledge in a variety of contexts. Challenges to this effort included team coordination (e.g., scheduling across time zones); hierarchies across and between countries; and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We recommend planning for these hierarchies ahead of time and ensuring significant in-person meeting time to make the most of international collaboration.

Assessing community engagement in Nigeria polio eradication initiative: application of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.

OBJECTIVE: This study employed the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to assess factors that enhanced or impeded the implementation of community engagement strategies using the Nigerian polio programme as a point of reference. DESIGN: This study was a part of a larger descriptive cross-sectional survey. The CFIR was used to design the instrument which was administered through face-to-face and phone interviews as well as a web-based data collection platform, Qualtrics. SETTING: The study took place in at least one State from each of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria (Nasarawa, Borno, Kano, Sokoto, Anambra, Bayelsa, Lagos, Ondo and Oyo States as well as the Federal Capital Territory). PARTICIPANTS: The respondents included programme managers, policy-makers, researchers and frontline field implementers affiliated with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) core partner organisations, the three tiers of the government health parastatals (local, state and federal levels) and academic/research institutions. RESULTS: Data for this study were obtained from 364 respondents who reported participation in community engagement activities in Nigeria's PEI. Majority (68.4%) had less than 10 years' experience in PEI, 57.4% were involved at the local government level and 46.9% were team supervisors. Almost half (45.0%) of the participants identified the process of conducting the PEI program and social environment (56.0%) as the most important internal and external contributor to implementing community engagement activities in the community, respectively. The economic environment (35.7%) was the most frequently reported challenge among the external challenges to implementing community engagement activities. CONCLUSION: Community engagement strategies were largely affected by the factors relating to the process of conducting the polio programme, the economic environment and the social context. Therefore, community engagement implementers should focus on these key areas and channel resources to reduce obstacles to achieve community engagement goals.