Papers by Robert NDAMOBISSI PhD
Journal of BioMed Research and Reports, ISSN:2837-4681, 2024
Nigeria is the largest country in Africa in terms of its population and economy, and has innovati... more Nigeria is the largest country in Africa in terms of its population and economy, and has innovative policies, strategies and investments to improve child survival and development. Despite these efforts, approximately 12 million Nigerian children aged under 5 years are stunted and 3 million are suffering from wasting. In response to this child malnutrition crisis, UNICEF partnered with the Government of Nigeria and public-private partners to develop and implement the Nigeria-UNICEF Country Programme of Cooperation (2018-2022), with nutrition as part of the child survival component. The Nutrition CPC was independently evaluated against six Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Assistance Committee criteria (relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability), and two cross-cutting criteria (equity/gender and resilience). Key objectives were to determine the programme's merit based on expected results and impact; and the effectiveness of multisectoral interventions for addressing child malnutrition. The evaluation methodology was a mixed methods' design with two components: an impact and performance evaluation of nationwide nutrition programming; and an impact evaluation of multisectoral integrated interventions in seven pilot states. Methods included a document review, an analysis of existing survey data comparing outcomes in intervention and control states, an analysis of primary survey data from over 5,600 households, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and direct observations. The Nutrition CPC was found to be partially successful in terms of its relevance, coherence effectiveness, efficiency (value for money), impact and equity; highly successful with regards to resilience; and 'unsuccessful' for sustainability. The programme achieved targets across several expected results. At the national level, it reached 35 million children with vitamin A supplementation. In UNICEF supported states, over 2.5 million (80 per cent) of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition were treated. By supporting infant and young child nutrition services, the Nutrition CPC improved the likelihood and frequency of infants receiving breastmilk (extending duration by 0.33 months per child) and a more diverse diet. However, only 30 per cent of caregivers in treatment areas were aware of the programme's key activities and less than 20 per cent of caregivers reported receiving counselling on multisectoral interventions (water, sanitation and hygiene, child nutrition or parenting). The programme contributed in measurable ways to improving nutrition knowledge and infant feeding practices and saving the lives of 2.5 million children aged under 5 years affected by severe acute malnutrition. However, it has not achieved its goal of significantly reducing child malnutrition, with nutrition outcomes still languishing at low levels. Prevalence of wasting has increased due to the negative impact of COVID-19 on household food insecurity, poverty and increased inflation, as well as physical insecurity in the north of the country. Delivering a multisectoral programme to support nutrition proved challenging, and many stakeholders have concerns about the government's capacity to sustain the progress that has been achieved.
Social Science Research Network, Dec 31, 2022
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2023
We investigate the impact of unconditional cash transfers on school enrolment in Niger and Sokoto... more We investigate the impact of unconditional cash transfers on school enrolment in Niger and Sokoto, two fragile northern Nigerian states. The unconditional cash transfer programme aimed to promote girls' access to education and provided households with quarterly cash transfers. We draw on repeated cross-sectional household survey data for 2017 and 2020 and employ coarsened exact matching and difference-indifferences approach to estimate the impact of cash transfers on school enrolment. Our results, which are robust to a suite of robustness and sensitivity checks, show that cash transfers have a positive and statistically significant effect on school enrolment. Specifically, cash transfers increase the probability of school enrolment by 19.2 percentage points among beneficiaries. Further analysis shows that the positive impacts of cash transfers on school enrolment are only observed among female children and are also larger for children aged 6-11 years. These findings show that, even in a fragile context, cash transfers can facilitate school enrolment among girls and younger children, which can potentially facilitate safe transitions to adolescence.
PubMed, 2002
Objective: A Multiple-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was conducted at mid-decade in more than 60... more Objective: A Multiple-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was conducted at mid-decade in more than 60 developing countries to measure progress towards the year 2000 World Summit for Children goals. These goals included the protection of at least 90% of children against neonatal tetanus through the immunization of their mothers, as measured by tetanus toxoid (TT) coverage. In the Central African Republic (CAR), serological testing was added to the MICS to understand better the relationship between survey estimates of TT coverage and the prevalence of serological protection. Methods: In the CAR MICS, mothers of children younger than one year of age gave verbal histories of the TT vaccinations they had received, using the MICS TT questionnaire. A subsample of mothers was tested for tetanus antitoxin, using a double-antigen enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA). Seropositivity was defined as a titre of > or =0.01 IU/ml, and TT coverage was defined as the proportion of mothers protected at delivery, according to their history of TT vaccinations. Findings: Among the 222 mothers in the subsample, weighted TT coverage was 74.4% (95% Confidence Interval (CI); 67.0% - 81.7%) and tetanus antitoxin seroprevalence was 88.7% (95% CI; 83.2% - 94.2%). The weighted median antitoxin titre was 0.35 IU/ml. Conclusions: Tetanus toxoid coverage in the CAR was lower than the prevalence of serological protection against neonatal tetanus. If this relationship holds for other countries, TT coverage estimates from the MICS may underestimate the extent to which the year 2000 goal for protecting children against neonatal tetanus was reached. We also showed that a high level of serological protection had been achieved in a country facing major public health challenges and resource constraints.
La Republique centrafricaine est l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planete. Il est classe au 1... more La Republique centrafricaine est l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planete. Il est classe au 165e rang sur 173 pays selon l’indice de developpement humain durable etablit par le PNUD dans son rapport annuel 2002. Confronte aux multiples troubles politico-militaires et aux faiblesses en matiere de gestion macro-economique, le taux de croissance economique est quasi nul en 2002 et environ 62 % de la population vit en dessous du seuil de pauvrete monetaire de 1 dollar par jour. Le pays n’a pas pu signer un accord avec le FMI et la Banque mondiale depuis plus de cinq ans pour un programme triennal de Facilite d’ajustement pour la croissance economique et la reduction de la pauvrete. L’analyse des inegalites par l’approche des « avoirs du menage » a l’aide des donnees de l’enquete MICS 2000, a revele de grandes inegalites en matiere de sante, d’education, de nutrition et de jouissance des droits des enfants en Republique centrafricaine. Le constat universel a ete verifie : les menages pauvres sont les plus vulnerables sur le plan social. La caracterisation des menages pauvres a permis de definir les groupes les plus vulnerables face a la pauvrete : les menages vivant en milieu rural, les menages vivant hors Bangui et principalement dans les zones cotonnieres et l’est du pays, les menages diriges par une femme ou par un jeune, les menages dont le chef a un niveau d’instruction faible et dont le statut dans l’emploi est instable, et les menages de petite taille. Les menages nombreux avec plus d’adultes connaissent une situation plus favorable, du fait de l’apport de plusieurs sources de revenus dans le menage : il s’agit d’une nouvelle strategie developpee par les menages pour ameliorer leur statut economique. De meme le VIH/sida a un impact sur la structure des menages ; des reponses appropriees pour faire face aux consequences socio-economiques du sida sur les familles s’averent necessaires. La politique de planification familiale doit prendre en compte cet aspect de la strategie de survie des familles en reflechissant sur des approches efficaces de communication. Ces resultats recommandent une segmentation des actions de lutte contre la pauvrete qui puisse adresser des reponses specifiques appropriees a chaque groupe cible. Des actions doivent egalement etre envisagees pour lutter contre le chomage des immigrants ayant un faible niveau d’instruction, vivant principalement dans les bidonvilles, et qui sont economiquement vulnerables.
Social Science & Medicine, Sep 1, 1996
Many policy-makers and health economists are interested in designing and implementing user fee/qu... more Many policy-makers and health economists are interested in designing and implementing user fee/quality improvement programs in public facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa on a national scale. This research addresses two design issues for a national program: (1) to what extent would user fees finance the costs of quality improvements, and (2) whether a uniform program could be implemented throughout the country or the user fees should differ between urban and rural areas or across health regions. A national survey was conducted to determine the population's willingness and ability to pay for seven quality improvements: (1) facility maintenance, (2) supervision of personnel, and drugs to treat (3) diarrheal diseases, (4) acute respiratory infections (ARI), (5) malaria, (6) intestinal parasites, and (7) sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Willingness to pay for quality improvements was measured by contingent valuation techniques in which subjects were asked about expenditures for care at government facilities under a hypothetical user fee/quality improvement program. Ability to pay was measured by monthly expenditures for health care as a percentage of monthly household consumption.
On-Line Publication, 2023
Women play critical roles for the sustainability of water and sanitation services in rural areas ... more Women play critical roles for the sustainability of water and sanitation services in rural areas in Nigeria. This research provides interesting evidence of the real benefit gained from the genuine strategy introduced by UNICEF in Nigeria in promoting Gender Empowerment for better community-based decision making in managing social basic services like Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). This innovative initiative resulted in ensuring adequate families’ practices that safeguard children’s healthy lives, growth, and development as implemented by UNICEF in Nigeria benefiting of financial support and partnership from FCDO/UK Aid, EU, Federal and States Government and Private Sector.
The research team has performed in-depth secondary data analysis of raw data set of the Nationwide Household WASHNORM Survey 2019 and Household data collected in 2019 for the independent Impact Evaluation of the WASH Program 2014-2017 funded by EU, FCDO/UK Aid, UNICEF and Govt.
Findings of the research show that, 49.7% of the WASHCOMs observed met the threshold of Women representation with a score of 70% and above. There is disparity that exists among the states covered for the study with the threshold of 70% Women Representation.
Findings related to the sustainability revealed that 47.6% of the WASHCOMs had the potential of sustainability (good performance) based on the criteria of computation described in Table 2 using the average scores of 70% and above threshold as acceptable standard. Also, when we considered 60% threshold of average scores, the overall performance increased from 47.6% to 69.6% of the overall WASHCOMs being sustainable.
On-Line Publication, 2022
This article provides sound evidence about the positive effects of early teaching of local langua... more This article provides sound evidence about the positive effects of early teaching of local languages and the application of code-switching teaching model of English & Local Language by teachers during practical classroom teaching, on better understanding of educational topics by pupils, better satisfaction of teachers and parents and greater learning outcomes and skills of youth in building their future capabilities and the development of the society in Nigeria.
Multiple mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the design of the study and its operationalization within the field data collection, quantitative statistical data analysis and qualitative information analysis using the conceptual framework developed jointly by the research management team (page 6). This study benefited of technical and financial support of UNICEF’s Nigeria and FCDO-UK Aid’s funding support.
Subsequently, we find from quantitative school-based pupils’ assessment survey that: i) proficiency scores in literacy and numeracy of pupils assessed in Local Language is higher (65.4%) than the proficiency scores of pupils tested in English (46%); ii) there is gender inequality in pupils’ proficiency scores when pupils are assessed in Local Language; with the girls having higher proficiency score of 68.3% against 60.4% for boys. However, the results show a marginal difference in proficiency between boys’ and girls’ scores when assessed in English (L2) with the boys having a slightly higher proficiency of 46.7% in comparison to 45.5% for girls respectively. The pupils’ proficiency score of 68.5% indicates that pupils demonstrate better understanding in expressing concepts or examples in English in comparison to LIE with a score of 60%.
On-Line Publication, 2023
Social Norms and inadequate individual behaviour & practices represent one of the key determinant... more Social Norms and inadequate individual behaviour & practices represent one of the key determinant factors of child survival, thrive and development in Africa. Nigeria has succeeded to eradicate Poliomyelitis Virus in 2020 as certified by WHO which represent a tremendous relief of burden of diseases for Africa. This study provides sound evidence showing the significative positive effect of the Community Based Social Mobilization Strategy using local women community mobilizers network (18,000 agents) in increasing the 4 OPV immunization coverage, eradication of polio and the use of health facilities by mothers, by breaking initial resistance to oral polio vaccination in the complex cultural environment of 4 northern states of Nigeria (Khano, Kebbi, Bauchi, and Kaduna).
On-Line Publication, 2022
Nigeria is the largest demographic and economic country in Africa with 200 million people and aro... more Nigeria is the largest demographic and economic country in Africa with 200 million people and around 448 billion USD annual GDP (6).
Nigeria is the first African country that has completed an independent comprehensive strategic policy evaluation (3) of the global agenda of SDG3 in 2021. UNICEF Nigeria has provided technical and financial support.
The Purpose of SDG3 Evaluation (1) is for Learning & Accountability to avail in-depth knowledge about what work, what didn’t work and why related to the achievement of expected results of the NSHDPII 2018-2022 (2) and to propose strategic policy recommendations that will serve for evidence-informed policies decision making for the acceleration of decade of actions towards SDG3 2030 that will make significant changes for children in Nigeria.
Mixed methods were applied which comprise Policy Analysis, Secondary Data Analysis, Multi variate regression analysis of raw data from nationwide Household Surveys, Quantitative Primary Field Data Collection within Health Facilities Assessment & Qualitative Field Data Collection (FGDs and KIIs) in application of the Quasi-Experiment Design Approach (4), Health Financing and Bottlenecks Analysis.
Sound massive evidence was generated which has revealed that Nigeria is unlikely to achieve the global agenda of SDG3 by 2030. Main Driver Factors are the very low level of health public financing, limited access & poor quality of PHC, weak capacity of local governance of PHC, huge household out of pocket payment for health services, demographic burden and poverty.
Paper for On-Line Publication, 2022
Nigeria is the largest demographic and economic country in Africa with around 200 million people ... more Nigeria is the largest demographic and economic country in Africa with around 200 million people & about 448 billion USD of annual GDP. Despite tremendous efforts made by Government, States, development partners, private sector, and local authorities to improve Access and Quality of Basic Education through genuine policies, innovative strategies & public investments, Nigeria carries the top higher number of children out of school about 18 million according to the Education Sector Audit 2018.
La malnutrition des enfants dans les pays du Sahel et de la Corne de l'Afrique, 2018
La situation d’insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle récurrente dont souffrent environ 155 mil... more La situation d’insécurité alimentaire et nutritionnelle récurrente dont souffrent environ 155 millions d’enfants dans le monde dont 59 millions en Afrique et particulièrement ceux du Sahel et de la Corne de l’Afrique, constitue un problème majeur de santé publique, de développement et de conscience collective mondiale dans ce nouveau contexte de globalisation de la prospérité, des droits de survie, d’éducation et de protection des enfants.La malnutrition des enfants de moins de cinq ans caractérisée par le rachitisme, l’insuffisance pondérale ou l’émaciation, augmente leurs risques de décès, handicape le développement psycho moteur de même que leurs réussites scolaires et professionnelles et impacte négativement le développement économique des pays entrainant un cercle vicieux de pauvreté familiale et sociétale et d’émigrations.Parmi les pays les plus touchés par la malnutrition des enfants, les cinq pays ayant fait l’objet de cette thèse (le Burkina Faso, le Niger, le Sénégal, l’Et...
L'enfant en Centrafrique, 2004
La Republique centrafricaine est l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planete. Il est classe au 1... more La Republique centrafricaine est l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planete. Il est classe au 165e rang sur 173 pays selon l’indice de developpement humain durable etablit par le PNUD dans son rapport annuel 2002. Confronte aux multiples troubles politico-militaires et aux faiblesses en matiere de gestion macro-economique, le taux de croissance economique est quasi nul en 2002 et environ 62 % de la population vit en dessous du seuil de pauvrete monetaire de 1 dollar par jour. Le pays n’a pas pu signer un accord avec le FMI et la Banque mondiale depuis plus de cinq ans pour un programme triennal de Facilite d’ajustement pour la croissance economique et la reduction de la pauvrete. L’analyse des inegalites par l’approche des « avoirs du menage » a l’aide des donnees de l’enquete MICS 2000, a revele de grandes inegalites en matiere de sante, d’education, de nutrition et de jouissance des droits des enfants en Republique centrafricaine. Le constat universel a ete verifie : les menages pauvres sont les plus vulnerables sur le plan social. La caracterisation des menages pauvres a permis de definir les groupes les plus vulnerables face a la pauvrete : les menages vivant en milieu rural, les menages vivant hors Bangui et principalement dans les zones cotonnieres et l’est du pays, les menages diriges par une femme ou par un jeune, les menages dont le chef a un niveau d’instruction faible et dont le statut dans l’emploi est instable, et les menages de petite taille. Les menages nombreux avec plus d’adultes connaissent une situation plus favorable, du fait de l’apport de plusieurs sources de revenus dans le menage : il s’agit d’une nouvelle strategie developpee par les menages pour ameliorer leur statut economique. De meme le VIH/sida a un impact sur la structure des menages ; des reponses appropriees pour faire face aux consequences socio-economiques du sida sur les familles s’averent necessaires. La politique de planification familiale doit prendre en compte cet aspect de la strategie de survie des familles en reflechissant sur des approches efficaces de communication. Ces resultats recommandent une segmentation des actions de lutte contre la pauvrete qui puisse adresser des reponses specifiques appropriees a chaque groupe cible. Des actions doivent egalement etre envisagees pour lutter contre le chomage des immigrants ayant un faible niveau d’instruction, vivant principalement dans les bidonvilles, et qui sont economiquement vulnerables.
International Journal of Educational Development, 2021
This study provides comprehensive evidence on the negative effects of physical, sexual, and emoti... more This study provides comprehensive evidence on the negative effects of physical, sexual, and emotional violence on children's well-being and educational outcomes in Northern Nigeria. In this paper, we analyzed household survey data, conducted surveys with a representative sample of pupils, and carried out interviews and focus groups with stakeholders. We provide some evidence that exposure to physical or emotional violence is negatively associated with social-emotional skills and self-efficacy. Subsequently, we find that children who experience any kind of violence are more likely to be out of school, have reduced learning, and are less likely to feel safe traveling to and from school. Exposure to sexual violence has a pronounced negative relationship with children's mental health, an increased the likelihood of early marriage, and a lower likelihood of attending school. * Corresponding author. 1 The Violence Against Children Survey (VACS) Nigeria does not permit us to identify individual states. However, we are able to identify the Northern states of Nigeria.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2002
A Multiple-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was conducted at mid-decade in more than 60 developing... more A Multiple-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was conducted at mid-decade in more than 60 developing countries to measure progress towards the year 2000 World Summit for Children goals. These goals included the protection of at least 90% of children against neonatal tetanus through the immunization of their mothers, as measured by tetanus toxoid (TT) coverage. In the Central African Republic (CAR), serological testing was added to the MICS to understand better the relationship between survey estimates of TT coverage and the prevalence of serological protection. In the CAR MICS, mothers of children younger than one year of age gave verbal histories of the TT vaccinations they had received, using the MICS TT questionnaire. A subsample of mothers was tested for tetanus antitoxin, using a double-antigen enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay (ELISA). Seropositivity was defined as a titre of > or =0.01 IU/ml, and TT coverage was defined as the proportion of mothers protected at delivery, ac...
Le contexte économique et social La République centrafricaine est l'un des pays les plus pauvres ... more Le contexte économique et social La République centrafricaine est l'un des pays les plus pauvres du monde. Le PIB par habitant avoisine les 300 dollars américains. Le rapport annuel sur le développement humain publié par le PNUD en 1999 classe la Centrafrique au 165 e rang mondial, parmi les pays les plus pauvres de la planète. D'après les estimations de la Banque mondiale (2000/2001), la Centrafrique fait partie des pays les plus touchés par la pauvreté avec une forte proportion de population qui vit avec moins de 1 dollar par jour.
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Papers by Robert NDAMOBISSI PhD
The research team has performed in-depth secondary data analysis of raw data set of the Nationwide Household WASHNORM Survey 2019 and Household data collected in 2019 for the independent Impact Evaluation of the WASH Program 2014-2017 funded by EU, FCDO/UK Aid, UNICEF and Govt.
Findings of the research show that, 49.7% of the WASHCOMs observed met the threshold of Women representation with a score of 70% and above. There is disparity that exists among the states covered for the study with the threshold of 70% Women Representation.
Findings related to the sustainability revealed that 47.6% of the WASHCOMs had the potential of sustainability (good performance) based on the criteria of computation described in Table 2 using the average scores of 70% and above threshold as acceptable standard. Also, when we considered 60% threshold of average scores, the overall performance increased from 47.6% to 69.6% of the overall WASHCOMs being sustainable.
Multiple mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the design of the study and its operationalization within the field data collection, quantitative statistical data analysis and qualitative information analysis using the conceptual framework developed jointly by the research management team (page 6). This study benefited of technical and financial support of UNICEF’s Nigeria and FCDO-UK Aid’s funding support.
Subsequently, we find from quantitative school-based pupils’ assessment survey that: i) proficiency scores in literacy and numeracy of pupils assessed in Local Language is higher (65.4%) than the proficiency scores of pupils tested in English (46%); ii) there is gender inequality in pupils’ proficiency scores when pupils are assessed in Local Language; with the girls having higher proficiency score of 68.3% against 60.4% for boys. However, the results show a marginal difference in proficiency between boys’ and girls’ scores when assessed in English (L2) with the boys having a slightly higher proficiency of 46.7% in comparison to 45.5% for girls respectively. The pupils’ proficiency score of 68.5% indicates that pupils demonstrate better understanding in expressing concepts or examples in English in comparison to LIE with a score of 60%.
Nigeria is the first African country that has completed an independent comprehensive strategic policy evaluation (3) of the global agenda of SDG3 in 2021. UNICEF Nigeria has provided technical and financial support.
The Purpose of SDG3 Evaluation (1) is for Learning & Accountability to avail in-depth knowledge about what work, what didn’t work and why related to the achievement of expected results of the NSHDPII 2018-2022 (2) and to propose strategic policy recommendations that will serve for evidence-informed policies decision making for the acceleration of decade of actions towards SDG3 2030 that will make significant changes for children in Nigeria.
Mixed methods were applied which comprise Policy Analysis, Secondary Data Analysis, Multi variate regression analysis of raw data from nationwide Household Surveys, Quantitative Primary Field Data Collection within Health Facilities Assessment & Qualitative Field Data Collection (FGDs and KIIs) in application of the Quasi-Experiment Design Approach (4), Health Financing and Bottlenecks Analysis.
Sound massive evidence was generated which has revealed that Nigeria is unlikely to achieve the global agenda of SDG3 by 2030. Main Driver Factors are the very low level of health public financing, limited access & poor quality of PHC, weak capacity of local governance of PHC, huge household out of pocket payment for health services, demographic burden and poverty.
The research team has performed in-depth secondary data analysis of raw data set of the Nationwide Household WASHNORM Survey 2019 and Household data collected in 2019 for the independent Impact Evaluation of the WASH Program 2014-2017 funded by EU, FCDO/UK Aid, UNICEF and Govt.
Findings of the research show that, 49.7% of the WASHCOMs observed met the threshold of Women representation with a score of 70% and above. There is disparity that exists among the states covered for the study with the threshold of 70% Women Representation.
Findings related to the sustainability revealed that 47.6% of the WASHCOMs had the potential of sustainability (good performance) based on the criteria of computation described in Table 2 using the average scores of 70% and above threshold as acceptable standard. Also, when we considered 60% threshold of average scores, the overall performance increased from 47.6% to 69.6% of the overall WASHCOMs being sustainable.
Multiple mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the design of the study and its operationalization within the field data collection, quantitative statistical data analysis and qualitative information analysis using the conceptual framework developed jointly by the research management team (page 6). This study benefited of technical and financial support of UNICEF’s Nigeria and FCDO-UK Aid’s funding support.
Subsequently, we find from quantitative school-based pupils’ assessment survey that: i) proficiency scores in literacy and numeracy of pupils assessed in Local Language is higher (65.4%) than the proficiency scores of pupils tested in English (46%); ii) there is gender inequality in pupils’ proficiency scores when pupils are assessed in Local Language; with the girls having higher proficiency score of 68.3% against 60.4% for boys. However, the results show a marginal difference in proficiency between boys’ and girls’ scores when assessed in English (L2) with the boys having a slightly higher proficiency of 46.7% in comparison to 45.5% for girls respectively. The pupils’ proficiency score of 68.5% indicates that pupils demonstrate better understanding in expressing concepts or examples in English in comparison to LIE with a score of 60%.
Nigeria is the first African country that has completed an independent comprehensive strategic policy evaluation (3) of the global agenda of SDG3 in 2021. UNICEF Nigeria has provided technical and financial support.
The Purpose of SDG3 Evaluation (1) is for Learning & Accountability to avail in-depth knowledge about what work, what didn’t work and why related to the achievement of expected results of the NSHDPII 2018-2022 (2) and to propose strategic policy recommendations that will serve for evidence-informed policies decision making for the acceleration of decade of actions towards SDG3 2030 that will make significant changes for children in Nigeria.
Mixed methods were applied which comprise Policy Analysis, Secondary Data Analysis, Multi variate regression analysis of raw data from nationwide Household Surveys, Quantitative Primary Field Data Collection within Health Facilities Assessment & Qualitative Field Data Collection (FGDs and KIIs) in application of the Quasi-Experiment Design Approach (4), Health Financing and Bottlenecks Analysis.
Sound massive evidence was generated which has revealed that Nigeria is unlikely to achieve the global agenda of SDG3 by 2030. Main Driver Factors are the very low level of health public financing, limited access & poor quality of PHC, weak capacity of local governance of PHC, huge household out of pocket payment for health services, demographic burden and poverty.
Under five child malnutrition characterized by stunting, underweight or wasting increase the risk of child morbidity and mortality, handicap readiness of learning and professional skills and impact on economic development of the country resulting to a vicious circle of poverty and fragility of the family and causing international migrations.
Four countries mostly affected by child malnutrition in the Sahel and horn of Africa that we have selected for this study (Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Ethiopia) in comparison to Ghana are facing the severity of climatic and geo-ecologic environment, political instability, weak economic and social development and the gap of nutritional governance undermined by the lack of political, legal and financial commitments of Government and the limited institutional capacities to combat strongly undernutrition.
In addition to food insecurity, malnourished children and their families are confronted to bottlenecks of supply and demand of access and use of community based basic social services, to the household poverty, the poor family social status, to demographic burden, gender based inequality, heavy social norms, traditional cultural and believes and ignorance of malnutrition which cause inadequate behavioral practices of child feeding and nutrition, child health care including unsafety water & sanitation conditions that facilitate diseases & malnutrition.
Strengthening effective political engagement, accountable governance and massive financial investment for multi sector integrated interventions, promoting social protections systems and massive community based social and behavior changes in favor of child and mother nutrition are required for achieving SDG of “no one left behind prosperity, ending hunger, malnutrition… by 2030” and achieving child rights.
Key Words: Child malnutrition, political and socio-demographic challenges, poverty in Africa.
Under five child malnutrition characterized by stunting, underweight or wasting increase the risk of child morbidity and mortality, handicap readiness of learning and professional skills and impact on economic development of the country resulting to a vicious circle of poverty and fragility of the family and causing international migrations.
Four countries mostly affected by child malnutrition in the Sahel and horn of Africa that we have selected for this study (Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Ethiopia) in comparison to Ghana are facing the severity of climatic and geo-ecologic environment, political instability, weak economic and social development and the gap of nutritional governance undermined by the lack of political, legal and financial commitments of Government and the limited institutional capacities to combat strongly undernutrition.
In addition to food insecurity, malnourished children and their families are confronted to bottlenecks of supply and demand of access and use of community based basic social services, to the household poverty, the poor family social status, to demographic burden, gender based inequality, heavy social norms, traditional cultural and believes and ignorance of malnutrition which cause inadequate behavioral practices of child feeding and nutrition, child health care including unsafety water & sanitation conditions that facilitate diseases & malnutrition.
Strengthening effective political engagement, accountable governance and massive financial investment for multi sector integrated interventions, promoting social protections systems and massive community based social and behavior changes in favor of child and mother nutrition are required for achieving SDG of “no one left behind prosperity, ending hunger, malnutrition… by 2030” and achieving child rights.
Key Words: Child malnutrition, political and socio-demographic challenges, poverty in Africa