Nigeria is expected to establish the Maternal Mortality Action (MAMA) Fund as part of an ongoing World Bank loan deal worth $500 million.
This is according to a Stakeholder Engagement Plan for Nigeria: Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Programme. Nigeria expects the World Bank to approve a $500 million loan for this scheme next month.
The program is part of the HOPE Health Program’s $65 million Investment Project Financing (IPF) component, which aims to improve access to high-quality healthcare services across Nigeria.
Why MAMA Fund
The establishment of the MAMA Fund is a crucial step in Nigeria’s efforts to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates and achieve its human capital development goals.
According to the World Bank document, the MAMA Fund will focus on strengthening Primary Health Care (PHC) services across Nigeria, targeting rural and underserved populations.
The fund, with an allocation of $15 million, will support both public and private sector innovations aimed at improving maternal and child health interventions.
The document read: “MAMA fund innovation “investments” is focused primarily on Primary Health Care (PHC) strengthening in lagging and climate vulnerable States, allowing them to address legacy issues and “prime the pump”. These types of service delivery innovations would aim to expand coverage or quality of services at the population level with an emphasis on under-served rural populations.
“The MAMA Innovation Fund will be designed to support public and private sector innovations aimed at increasing utilization and quality of maternal and child health Interventions. The establishment and operation of the MAMA Fund will support not only private sector innovations aimed at increasing utilization and quality of maternal and child health interventions, but also partnerships with the public sector to test new approaches or scaling up services for improving the delivery of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (RMNACH) services.
“The fund will support interventions critical to ending preventable maternal, newborn, and infant deaths including midwifery; emergency obstetric and newborn care; maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response; obstetric fistula and other obstetric morbidities; digital capabilities and technologies.”
Other key project subcomponents
- The program also allocates $15 million towards the design, procurement, and deployment of a federated digital-in-health enterprise architecture. This component seeks to drive a significant digital transformation within Nigeria’s health sector by digitizing essential health information systems, such as the electronic human resource management information system, the national health insurance system, and electronic health records.
- Another critical aspect of the program involves the creation of a platform for coordinated technical assistance, with a budget of $2.5 million. This component is designed to enhance the capacity and sustainability of healthcare interventions throughout Nigeria.
- The program also focuses on strengthening the strategic purchasing and regulatory functions of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), with an allocation of $10 million.
- Also, the program includes a $5 million investment in the implementation of the Public Health Fellows Program. This initiative will establish the National Health Fellows Program, engaging young Nigerian fellows across all 774 local government areas.
- The program also emphasizes the importance of independent verification of its results, allocating $7.5 million for this purpose. An Independent Verification Agent (IVA) will be hired to conduct thorough assessments of the program’s outcomes and provide credible analysis of the performance of both state and federal governments under the HOPE-PHC PforR (Program-for-Results).
- It also includes the development of annual state of health reports and performance rankings, with a budget of $2.5 million.
