Documenting the outcomes of a novel national-level, government-supported maternal and child health programme in Nigeria

Abstract

Data from the World Health Organization and other global sources have reported that Nigeria has some of the most daunting indicators of maternal and child health in the world. Since the turn of the new millennium and the onset of rejuvenated democracy in the country, efforts have been put in place by numerous governments and non-governmental actors with the objective to reduce the high rate of maternal and child death. At the non-governmental and private sector level, several interventions have been implemented or are being implemented, which despite being highly useful, have often lacked the scale and momentum to achieve significant results and impact. Many have argued that it will be difficult to achieve significant milestones in improving maternal and child health indicators unless governments take the lead to scale up known and effective maternal and child health interventions.