By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
The IntegratE 2.0 Project, a five-year collaborative initiative aimed at expanding healthcare access, has successfully officially closed out in Bauchi State, reporting massive impact in primary healthcare and family planning services across all the 20 Local Government Areas of the state.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the project was led by the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) and implemented by a consortium headed by the Society for Family Health (SFH).
The intervention was designed to scale up healthcare access across 11 pilot states while generating critical data to support state and federal healthcare policy updates.
Speaking at the close-out event at the Maryama Guest Palace GRA Bauchi, the Group Managing Director of the Society for Family Health, Dr. Omokhudu Idogbo represented by Regional Program Manager Mr. Johnson Ekele, urged local stakeholders to sustain the project’s achievements.
“The end of the IntegratE 2.0 project should not be the end of progress, partnership, and possibilities.As we close this chapter, we respectfully call on all stakeholders to protect the gains of IntegratE and keep the momentum alive”.
“The knowledge acquired, systems strengthened, partnerships established and lessons learned should become part of the regular services, planning, delivery, and monitoring across all 20 LGAs’.
“The project successfully trained 478 healthcare providers, including 22 Community Pharmacists (CPs) and 256 Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) across the state’s 20 LGAs.Over 221,010 women received family planning information through trained community mobilizers and interpersonal communication agents.
“More than 91,000 children under the age of five received specialized care, management, and referrals for malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia, and nutritional issues from trained CPs and PPMVs. Local providers were trained on data documentation using the Federal Ministry of Health’s community management information system, while public-private referral directories were created to bridge service gaps” he said.
Dr. Idogbo commended the Bauchi State Government, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the State Primary Healthcare Board, traditional and religious leaders, and civil society organizations for the collaborative effort that ensured the project’s success.
