GSMA mHealth in Nigeria: Innovating mobile solutions that push towards the MDGs

Health and Nutrition Landscape 

It is worrisome that, with less than 2 years to the set date for attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the numbers are not looking good regarding the situation of women and children in Nigeria. It is reported that about 53,000 women die annually from complications during pregnancy and delivery, including haemorrhage, infections, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure leading to convulsion, anaemia and malaria, just to mention a few.

The situation is however more ominous for children. Up to 1 million children under the age of 5 die every year. Most children die from complications of low birth weight, infections, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, malaria and other vaccine preventable deaths. Malnutrition accounts for more than half of deaths in children under the age of 5. 36% of children under 5 are stunted (HAZ<-2) with 20% suffering from zinc deficiency, while 44% of pregnant women are zinc deficient and 15% are underweight. The underlying reasons for this situation are largely household food insecurity (poor household diet and low diversity), poor quality of care and poor access to healthcare services.

If this situation continues without drastic strategic measures and disruptive innovative technology and solutions, Nigeria may be going home with red marks in its report card, especially on MGD 4 and 5. It is important to note that reducing malnutrition alone could decrease child mortality in Nigeria by more than 50% and the burden of pediatric disease by 20%.

Bold steps towards the goal 

As the race heats up towards the MDGs finish line, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, formally launched Nigeria’s Saving One Million Lives (SOML) Initiative, as part of his role as Co-Chair of the United Nations Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children. This initiative aims to scale up access to essential primary health services and commodities for Nigeria’s women and children and is being driven by the Federal Ministry of Health.

At the same time, many players are coming together to seek strategic partnerships that can produce innovative solutions to help achieve the overall SOML goals. Against this background, GSMA mHealth Mobile for Development is now positioned in Nigeria and will provide access to a wealth of research and global best practice in the health sector; work with development stakeholders in identifying and crystallizing commercially feasible and sustainable mHealth opportunities for mobile operators; help broker profitable relationships between development partners and the broader mobile ecosystem as well as assist technically in the implementation and scale up of such opportunities.

To plant a presence and formally initiate its work in Nigeria, the GSMA team arrived in Lagos, Africa’s largest city and famous for its energetic people and countless investment opportunities. We met with very warm and amiable folks who were more than eager to assist us have a memorable visit.

As part of our duty tour, we visited and had some fruitful discussion with staff at Airtel Nigeria and later at MTN Nigeria and then jetted out to Abuja, Nigeria’s beautiful capital city, to participate at the ICT4SOML Workshop. The workshop provided us opportunity to meet with the key government contact on SOML where we presented our programme agenda and shared with other stakeholders as well as learning about what others are doing.  Strategic partnerships were initiated, valid contributions were made towards the draft ICT framework for SOML and also best practice for successful MNO engagement was shared with development stakeholders.

Following the Abuja meeting, a robust country plan has evolved with strong learning from GSMA mHealth’s South African experience.

Required Actions by all Stakeholders

  • Solution and technology providers must innovate for now and the future. There is a need to keep finding cost effective innovations and impactful solutions and technologies that will speed up progress.
  • The Government need to make long-term investment and fully embrace the use of mobile and all other proven technologies to aid better collection of health data and intelligence, for quicker decision making and development of health systems.
  • Solutions should be owned and vigorously applied by Government, with strong assistance from development partners.
  • MNOs have always been very proactive in contributing to health development in Nigeria. The time has now come for more focused and strategic partnerships towards the Saving One Million Lives agenda.
  • Development partners have done a great job but must keep the flame burning on health and nutrition issues affecting mothers and children. They must continue to seek strategic partnerships and engagements outside of their conventional circles that will produce faster results.

For more information on the GSMA Mobile for Development mHealth, please contact us on [email protected]. For information on various mHealth initiatives, click here. For more information on GSMA mHealth resources, click here.

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