FG, State Ministries of Health Partners EngenderHealth to Expand FP Access to Women in Sokoto and Bauchi

By Bashir Hassan Abubakar

Towards enhancing uptake of Family Planning (FP) in Sokoto and Bauchi States, forty-six (46) healthcare service providers, twenty-three (23) from each state made up of nurses, midwives and CHEWs drawn across all General Hospitals and High volume Primary Health Centers were recently taken through a competency based training on administration of Hormonal- Intrauterine Device (H-IUD), a long acting reversible contraceptive, as well as contraceptives data management and reporting tools.


The Four (4) days of intensive training was organized by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the State’s Ministries of Health (SMoH) and Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) of the two states respectively.

The training got funding and technical support from the Catalytic Opportunity Fund (CoF) H-IUD Scale-up Project that is implemented by Engender Health.


In his remarks during the training, the Country Representative of EngenderHealth, Dr. Kabiru Atta appreciated the Federal and State Governments for their commitment to improve reproductive health choices for women and adolescents in the states.

He appreciated the participants for their commitment to learning and charged them to take the acquired knowledge and, skills and to further train an additional 5 health workers in each of their 46 facilities to ensure that over 275 health workers have the right competencies by the end of the year 2023.


Dr. Gabriel Ortonga; Deputy Director and Head of FP Services at the Federal Ministry of Health who declared the training open, encouraged the trainees to pay particular attention during the 4 day training and continue to show dedication over the next 6 weeks mentoring program to enable them attain competency levels in insertion and Hormonal IUDs.  He highlighted the support of the FMOH in supplying H-IUD seed stocks and Placebos to the supported facilities before the training.

While facilitating sessions, The National Expert trainer Dr. Abubakar Danladi spoke extensively on the management of possible side effects and complications associated with H-IUD. He emphasized that side effects are generally not common and when they occur rarely, the majority resolve over a short period.


In line with the National Hormonal IUD Strategic Introduction and Scale-up plan 2021 – 2024, EngenderHealth is implementing the CHAI Catalytic Opportunity Fund for Hormonal IUD Scale-Up in Nigeria. The primary aim is to increase access to hormonal IUDs (HIUDs) in Bauchi and Sokoto states.

The interventions include training and supporting health workers in secondary health facilities and high-volume primary health care (PHC) facilities to integrate HIUD service delivery into their existing services.


Our correspondents reports that Engenderheath donated over 100 seed stock of HIUDs and other consumables for the HIUD insertion to all the participants for free insertion at their facilities.

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