Nigeria gets $11million USAID support for health survey

The United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID) is to support Nigeria with $11million to flag off the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.

The Chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Eze Duruiheoma disclosed this on in Thursday in Abuja at the joint press briefing of the federal ministry of health, and the National Population commission to commence the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

The chairman further disclosed that, apart from the support from the USAID support to carry out NHS, the Federal Government would also provide $3million, bringing the available fund for the survey to a total of 14million dollars.

The Minister of Health Issac Adewole in his speech said the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey which is the sixth in the series of NDHS conducted in Nigeria.

The minister noted that the survey which is scheduled to commence from August 15 to December 15, 2018 across the 36 States of the Federation and the FCT would enable the health sector to collect high-quality data for policy formulation, program planning, monitoring and evaluation.

He also said the NDHS is equally aimed at fostering and reinforcing host-country ownership of data collection, analysis, presentation, and use, while it seeks to Increase the capacity of host-country partners to collect and use data for policy and program implementation purposes.

“The sample size for the 2018 NDHS consists of a total of 1,400 clusters (small geographically defined areas) with each state and FCT having 37 clusters with the exception of Lagos and Kano States which have 53clusters respectively. The clusters are made up of 580 (41%) urban clusters with 17,310 households and 820 (59%) rural clusters with 24,690 households with each cluster having 30 households each.

Expectedly, a total of 40,567 women and 12,056 men will be interviewed in this survey. The 2018 NDHS unlike the previous exercises has been designed with additional components on malaria and genotype testing.

Adewole urge States and Local Government Councils, Traditional Institutions and Communities in the affected areas to support the Commission in carrying out the DHS by allowing field functionaries unfettered access to the selected clusters and also assist to sensitise the people on the essence of the project and solicit their cooperation.

“The official flag off of the 2018 NDHS is what we are doing here today. The zonal pretests will be carried out by all State teams in one selected state from the zone.

“The zonal fieldwork is scheduled to commence from 15th to 22nd August, 2018 in the six geo-political zones of the country. The fieldwork at the state level will commence from 26thAugust to 15th December, 2018 in the 36 States and the FCT,” said Adewole The USAID/Acting Mission Director, Erin Holleran in his remarks emphasized that the NHDS is a critical survey that will give a real information about the health and wellbeing of the women, men, men and children of Nigeria.

He further said the information gotten from the survey would give USAID the concrete answers about what it has done better in the five years from the last survey, and the areas where there is need to concentrate to make a difference.
“Malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea are all preventable a.d treatable diseases and with this survey, we will be able to measure our success and our challenges.

“The 2018 DHD, the U.S. Government is supporting the Nigerian government in conducting the National AIDS indicator and Impact
Survey. It os in every state and will last between June and December,” said Holleran

The 2018 Nigeria DHS is being conducted by the National Population Commission (NPopC) the agency statutorily mandated to generate demographic data for national planning in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health. As the implementing agency, the Commission is primarily responsible for the planning, analysis and dissemination of the survey results.

It is a five year periodic worldwide survey program designed by USAID with support from other international donor organizations to assist countries in conducting household sample surveys to monitor changes in population, health and nutrition. The survey is being currently carried out in several countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Data from these surveys will be used to better understand the population, health, and nutrition situation in these countries. The last DHS in Nigeria was conducted in 2013.

Oyin Aminu, Abuja