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population and reproductive health programme obafemi awolowo university ile-ife nigeria report annual 2009 sustainable development consolidating partnerships for

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announcement of nigeria national workshop on monitoring and evaluation of public health programs in nigeria population and reproductive health programme college of health sciences obafemi awolowo university ile-ife nigeria supported by application procedures persons who wish to take part in the workshop should visit www.prhpoau.org or www.cpc.unc.edu/measure to download the application forms interested applicants should send the completed application forms to prhp_oauife@yahoo.com olanrewajuseyi2@yahoo.com for additional information about this workshop please contact workshop coordinators dr e.a.a kuteyi +234 806 288 7350 e-mail eakuteyi@msn.com dr kola oyediran +234 803 551 7450 e-mail bkoyediran@gmail.com

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contents 1 unveiling the prhp a word from the director rhp mission structure meet the new director 2 teaching activities training programmes academic programmes on the prospects of online platforms for public health education 3 research initiatives community engagements ijebu-jesa family planning project ipetumodu family health and wealth study 4 reproductive health advocacy contributions to national development efforts network of postgraduate public health training institutions in nigeria 5 events in pictures 6 new partnerships technical services the learning plus project measure evaluation collaboration technical services 7 faculty development alumni news training workshops and conferences news from faculty members publications feedback from the alumni 8 acknowledgements 1

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partners bill and melinda gates institute for population and reproductive health johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health baltimore unicef nigeria measure evaluation nigeria nigerian urban reproductive health initiative unfpa nigeria federal ministry of health federal ministry of education

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unveiling the prhp a word from the director the year 2009 was a very significant one for us operationally it marked the first full year of the second phase of our university s partnership with the bill melinda gates institute for population and reproductive health johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health while the partnership renewal based on the success of the five years of programme activities was a thrilling news we were also aware that the gates partnership has been designed ab initio to close by the end of the second phase thus while the success of the first phase gives us some confidence in this journey we are more than ever conscious of the need for sustainability our commitment is to build energetically on the firm foundation laid in the first phase and provide a solid platform for long-term continuity and sustainability we clearly recognise that the new vision has wideranging implications in terms of strengthening our structure systems and strategies and ensuring that they are all well aligned really our vision is not just to provide a technically and financially viable platform for the future but also to increase our impact within the university and the larger nigerian environment as well as improve our visibility and make greater marks globally certainly a tall vision yes it is but yes we can we can attain it as one of the sayings of the founding fathers of our university goes dreams do not come ready made we have to create them the current scenario provides unique opportunity to put the principles that we have been teaching our mph students in strategic leadership course to work we have no reason to fear the dragons that may want to stand on our ways but rather work strategically to overcome them indeed the five guide questions that we classical ask in the leadership course come to light 1 what is the future that we want to create 2 what is happening now 3 why is there a difference 4 what do we need to change 5 how do we nurture change and accountability among others the answer to these questions highlights to us the need to broaden our partnership base and strengthen the capacity of our human resources as this report shows we are lucky to have a number of new partners come on board to supplement the efforts of our numero uno partner the gates institute this report also highlights our adesegun ola fatusi achievements in other areas 1

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mission structure i mission population and reproductive health programme prhp came into being in 2002 as a result of collaborative initiative between the obafemi awolowo university and the bill and melinda gates institute for population and reproductive health johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health baltimore usa the overall goal of establishing prhp is to provide a sustainable and institutional platform for enhancing multi-disciplinary academic training and research within the university and to foster partnership between the university and the broader development community to promote evidence-based programming and policy initiatives in the population and reproductive health field with the agenda of scholarship for social change and societal impact the vision of prhp is not simply to be an academic unit engaging in research and teaching but rather to engage in high-quality research that are relevant to our national and regional settings and to actively partner with other actors in the reproductive health community and engage policy-makers to facilitate evidence-based decisions that will positively impact the health well-being and quality of life of individuals households and communities thus prhp lays great emphasis on translating research to results and creating partnership for positive action with the ultimate focus of advancing population and reproductive health agenda and well-being of the population at community sub-national national and international levels the expertise within prhp covers every area of population and reproductive health including adolescent health and development child health family planning gender and women s health health care management hiv/aids and other sexually transmitted diseases population and development strategies and safe motherhood among others the academic units that presently constitute the prhp are · department of community health faculty of clinical sciences · · institute of public health college of health sciences department of demography social statistics faculty of social sciences · · department of obstetrics gynaecology perinatology faculty of clinical sciences department of peadiatrics and child health faculty of clinical sciences prhp in addition faculty members from the following departments among others also play active parts in the academic activities and other related programmes of the prhp dermatology and venerology faculty of clinical sciences educational foundations counselling faculty of education sociology anthropology faculty of social sciences mental health faculty of clinical sciences public administration faculty of administrations ii structure prhp has a well-established structure with a multidisciplinary steering committee responsible for policy directions at the institutional level the head of each constituent academic unit the bursar and the accountant in charge of the grants and agency unit of the bursary two selected experts from the university community a representative of the alumni are all members of the steering committee alongside the director and programme coordinators the day-today management is the responsibility of the director he is supported by two coordinators programme coordinator academic programmes and programme coordinator field research and projects prhp also has a core of administrative staff including three fulltime programme officers in charge of administration and operations teaching alumni relations and research and knowledge management respectively the director coordinators and the heads of the three core academic units institute of public health departments of community health and demography and social statistics constitute the central management committee the committee provides technical support and advice to the director with regards to his responsibilities a national advisory group which includes key stakeholders in the health sector at federal levels is expected to function at the national level with the two gates institute partners in nigeria obafemi awolowo university and university of ibadan reporting to it part of the mandate of the group is to provide guidance which will ensure that the focus of the two programmes is in line with that of national priories and the results of their efforts are harnessed for national development 2

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prhp management framework stakeholdersin vt s n ro eedl lm ov e h v ee l k o amv t n se intindicatorsincludingmonitoringmanagementplan membership of the steering committee 2009 name dr adesegun fatusi dr kayode ijadunola position director coordinator academic programmes acting head department of community health college of health sciences coordinator field research project senior lecturer department of demography social statistics faculty of social sciences professor director institute of public health college of health sciences professor head department of paediatrics child health college of health sciences professor head department of obstetrics gynaecology college of health sciences senior lecturer ag head department of demography social statistics faculty of social sciences professor department of community health college of health sciences professor department of obstetrics gynaecology college of health sciences professor department of paediatrics child health college of health sciences senior lecturer ag head department of educational foundations counselling faculty of education university bursar chief accountant grants &agency unit bursary ministry of health oshogbo osun state management plan including monitoring indicators dr peter ogunjuyigbe prof delana adelekan prof olugbenga adeodu prof olusola fasubaa dr olusina bamiwuiye prof bamiji ojofeitimi prof uche onwudiegwu prof ebun adejuyigbe dr bukola ojo mrs lara odeyemi mr kehinde olatokun mrs tayo oyedeji 3

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the technical working groups are the engine rooms of the technical activities of the prhp each working group is headed by two academicians with expertise in the area of focus the working groups are currently 12 in number · adolescent health development · child health · family planning · gender women s health · health communication promotion · health management · hiv/aids stis · maternal health · monitoring evaluation · nutrition health development · population research surveillance · research ethics thematic team leadership for the prhp thematic area leadership thematic leader dr adesegun fatusi deputy leader dr folake olajide thematic leader prof olugbenga adeodu deputy leader dr adedeji onayade thematic leader prof olusola fasubaa deputy leader dr niyi makinde thematic leader dr peter ogunjuyigbe deputy leader dr ernest orji thematic leader dr kayode ijadunola deputy leader dr olayinka olasode adult hiv stis deputy leader prof ebun adejuyigbe paediatrics hiv thematic leader prof olabisi aina deputy leader dr babalola adeyemi thematic leader dr olusina bamiwuiye deputy leader dr segun afolabi thematic leader prof bamiji ojofeitimi deputy leader prof delana adelekan thematic leader mr soladoye asa deputy leader dr akanni akinyemi thematic leader dr tunde abioye-kuteyi deputy leader dr ishaq omoleke thematic leader dr olawunmi fatusi deputy leader dr olapeju esimai thematic leader dr bukola ojo deputy leader dr caleb adegbenro adolescent health development child health maternal health family planning hiv/aids stis gender women s health monitoring evaluation nutrition health development population research surveillance health management research ethics health communication promotion 4

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new director the meet dr fatusi adesegun programme director speaks on the state of the project and the new challenges it faces co-ordinating the project i took over as the director of the project in january 2009 as the first phase of the project ended operationally in december 2008 having been part of the leadership of the project since inception it was not difficult to understand where we were coming from and where we intend to go in the first phase we had a clear goal which is to do well enough in terms of putting the programme and making it run well so that we can build a good foundation for the future and secure the funding for the second phase however our goal in the second phase is and ought to be different for one with the way the gates institute partnership was designed from the beginning there is likely to be no further funding at the conclusion of this second phase this new development gave birth to our new approach and strategy as my past dean in the school of public affairs university of washington use to say to us as students every generation is defined by how it addresses the challenges that confront it definitely the degree to which we are able to ensure sustainability is what would define the degree to which our leadership and indeed the project can be regarded to have failed or succeeded our major emphasis therefore has been to think ahead and think beyond the second phase and see how we can build sustainability for me the goal is clearly looking beyond the next five years so as to ensure continuity and sustainability my experience has so far been good and my focus is driven by a four-dimensional vision strengthening the capacity of faculty members and staff so that we can be stronger technically engineering a more inclusive leadership with stronger team dynamics and ensuring team learning building greater visibility and achieving higher level of impact and expanding our partnership base such that we engage with more partners and become more financially sustainable building a platform for sustainability we have moved fairly well in terms of expanding our partnership base within the last one year in fact it has been a year full of activities and new initiatives for example we become the in-country partner for unicef with regards to its learning plus initiative which is a school health programme focusing on the health and well-being of school children our relationship with the two key stakeholders in the initiative unicef and the school health desk of the federal ministry of education has been wonderful though not without its own challenges particularly in the teething stage the relationship has opened new avenue for us to impact the health of young people and the total school environment positively among others unicef has also enriched our capacity for teaching and research through the provision of a number of equipment and material now we have a new partnership with measure evaluation focusing on strengthening national capacity 5

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for monitoring and evaluation m e this is an exciting development for us considering the global stature of measure evaluation in its area of core focus the plan is for us to start conducting short-term training in m e in 2010 and eventually has a track on m e in our mph programme the relationship has really exciting potentials as it enables us build our own capacity more position us to build the capacity of others and facilitate stronger contribution to national health development apart from developing partnerships with organisations that could support us technically and financially one other area of activity is providing technical services in our area of core competencies for example we were engaged by the united nations population fund unfpa project in ogun state in 2009 to help them conduct training on health management for key project personnel and to help carry out gis mapping as parts of efforts to strengthen referral services there is also a new project the nigeria urban reproductive health initiative nurhi which is funded by the bill and melinda gates foundation we were lucky to bid and get selected as the team to help them carry out some of their baseline survey we are also exploring other opportunities to technically engage and partner with nurhi as we see several areas of common interest between our two teams such as in the area of strengthening family planning services and reach in nigeria we also have a number of other new partnerships that we are getting involved in one of that is the consortium of advanced training in africa carta which is bringing together a number of leading institutions in the continent to network and strengthen the training of next generation of academicians and researchers we as well have a new relationship with the london school for hygiene and tropical medicine in the area of developing and running a short-course on adolescent health for middle and low income countries the world health organisation in geneva is also involved in the initiative our goal is to become the regional centre for that training in no distant time so clearly building partnerships for increased impact has been a major achievement for us in 2009 it has been tough trying to accommodate all these new partnerships and ensure that we continue to be effective efficient and quality-oriented but it has also been exciting expanding the frontiers of partnerships new developments in our academic programmes we are trying to broaden the reach and marketability of the courses we are running that is why we are fully committed to online training we have had some initial training activities for our staff on online training but we are still not at the point of fully mounting all our courses online it is no doubt a daunting job and a great challenge to our hard working and very busy faculty members there are challenges in terms of sustained internet connectivity but as one of albert einstein s saying goes the problems that we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them without doubt our executive mph programme has broadened our reach and stood us out within the gates institute partnership but it is not enough as it is also heavily based on the face-to-face teaching approach we need to expand our horizon and increase the accessibility of our programmes to meet more of the training needs out there the way to go is online training so we are irrevocably committed the online training agenda and we are going to commit more efforts to making it work in coming months and years online training is not only about increasing reach but it would also improve the quality of our training which is a very important issue to us sustainability is not only about programmes and finances but the structure and system in place are also critical so one other area that has engaged our attention is a reengineering of our structure we have focused on building a more inclusive and participatory leadership structure introducing the concept of thematic or working groups as the engine room to drive us forward technically the new approach enables more people to participate in decisionmaking and programme implementation each thematic group can decide on programmes that it wants to carry out within the overall mandate and plan of prhp and receive funding for such after due approval by the steering committee for example different thematic groups also serve as the face of our relationships with partners depending on the focus of the partnership thus the new structure also allows us to tap more into the wide variability of high-level competency that is available within our partnership and collaborating academic entities and co accomplish more goals simultaneously membership of the steering committee has become more institutionalised more than ever before we have continued to jealously guard and treasure the principle of openness and transparency which had been the hallmark of the leadership of our project right from its conception we are committed to team learning and to building a learning organisation where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together as peter senge the author of the classic book on strategic leadership the fifth discipline puts it challenges our greatest challenge has to do with human resources in a situation where teachers in many faculties within the university are already overburdened initiating new 6

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partnerships and the likes poses a lot of challenges meanwhile in partnerships international development organisations are highly focused on quality results how are we coping with this we don t really have a complete and perfect solution yet but we have realised that bringing more competent hands in reduces the burden on individuals so as i said earlier we have broadened the implementation structure apart from people in our main five constituting academic entities we have also continued to engage competent and interested experts in many hands in our university and sometimes even outside our university the main person coordinating the day-today dimension of our partnership with unicef for example is based in department of educational foundation and counselling in the faculty of education in designing school health curricula under the learning plus initiative we brought in colleagues from university of ibadan university of ilorin the federal ministry of education and other institutions to work with us we are working closely with colleagues from department of sociology and anthropology in the qualitative baseline survey for nurhi and colleagues from the department of geography are parts of our core team for gis mapping and there are several more examples bringing in more people and involving them in open and truly participatory manner has been our major strategy in dealing with the increasing programme portfolios certainly it has been a win-win formula for the programme and for the involved faculty members the second strategy is the online teaching while that approach comes with its own time challenges it will no doubt free teachers from the burden of several face to face teaching sessions it will allow for more flexibility in teaching and learning three we also try to use our programme officers to handle more responsibilities so we are looking at how we can also build their capacity to handle more administrative and technical responsibilities effectively empowering and enabling them to take greater initiatives will also free the leadership which is constituted by academicians with full load of teaching portfolio and sometimes additional clinical service provision from routine decision-making and managerial issues programme officers can take responsibility for many day-to-day issues while we give overall directions and monitor their performances that way we can concentrate on what needs our attention as leaders most the fourth dimension to tackling the challenge is through the committee system so that different people in different areas of expertise can be looking at different issues simultaneously we can then be looking at the core results centrally we are also encouraging people to go into new areas of academic endeavours for example several people from various academic backgrounds can be trained in the issue of strategic leadership and take up the teaching of the course thereafter we need to get new people and encourage and empower them to take up new responsibilities people have far greater capacities than we often use in the university all we have to do is encourage them to discover new areas in which they can work that is one major challenge coordination is another challenge once you are working in a project involving many partnerships there will be a challenge with managing relationships and managing coordination but we are getting there we have structured leadership meetings regularly and we are also trying to improve in-house communication we send out information periodically via the e-mail to keep people abreast of new developments we keep sending materials out people are not so used to that they still want you to call them and talk to them without doubt we need to maintain the human touch but for efficiency we also need to take increasing advantage of technology lastly we have realised that when we talk to partners they tend to feel more comfortable to talk to individuals that they know somehow many of them are scared of the university system and potential bureaucracy we have our challenges in that respect too particularly in time of crisis within the university system but we have been very lucky to have the strong support of the vice chancellor prof micheal faborode and his team including the deputy vice chancellor academics prof funmi togonu-bickersteth and the director of linkages and sponsored research prof adediran there had been times during the last crisis that we had to get some important things accomplished in terms of our strategic partners and they go out of their way to ensure we succeed one example perhaps would suffice the signing of the mou with unicef was carried out in the sitting room of the vice chancellor as the unicef team came at one of those heightened period of the university crisis we have also had the unflinching support of all those who had been the provosts of college of health sciences starting from the days of prof sanya adejuyigbe to the tenure of prof bode balogun then prof tope ogunbodede and now prof solomon ogunniyi we have also enjoyed high level of cooperation from the bursary section including that of mrs odeyemi the bursar mrs akeredolu the director in the bursary section and mr olatokun the chief accountant of the grants and agency unit and their staff implications of new partnerships for the programmes the new partnership with other organisations promises to be very rewarding one it gives us a greater potential to be sustainable and secondly to show our capacity for impact one of the traditional challenges of the university in my view has to do with the ivory tower mentality that tends to isolate the institution from national development 7

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processes we consequently lose out of national events that we can impact on we lose resources that we could have got every new partnership brings new resources not only to us but to the university and it helps us to be sustainable the larger university community can learn a lot about how we can be more relevant in national affairs and become stronger in terms of capacity the third is that it has well enhanced the quality and value of what we teach i always tell people that anyone can sit down in the classroom and teach whatever is in the textbook it is a different thing when you put your leg in the mud of national dynamics you can then come back to balance things and reconcile what the theory in your book says with the experience of how you do things in the national setting for us these partnerships are central to our core academic functions changes in the academic programmes our academic programmes have not experienced serious changes in the past two years the mph and the executive programme are still going on maybe the changes only concern achieving a better rate in terms of graduation of our students one of the areas we are looking at is how to improve the mentoring of our students during and after the programme and monitor their professional development after graduation we are also looking at the possibility of new programmes such as a diploma programmes in population and development and in child health we are also hopeful that the institute of public health will push forward more vigorously on the mandate of short professional certificate courses the impact of the alumni we are proud of our alumni and what they have been able to do we see very inspiring examples i will give a few examples drawing from different sectors one is their impact in the academic arena we have for example dr abubakar mustapha jamda who having finished our programme is now heading the department of community health of the university of abuja in fact he is trying to build the same kind of structure that we have in abuja in turn we are trying to foster relationship with his institution in the programme area we have mrs stella akinso who got the position of reproductive health advisor in usaid in 2009 at the state level we have people who are making impacts as programme officers such as mrs tayo oyedeji in osun state ministry of health dr amusan since graduation has now moved on to become director of health services at the university of agriculture abeokuta ms yinka asubiaro has built on her experience in the mph programmes to start an ngo focusing on adolescent health after graduation we have them in any area you can think of in the population and reproductive health sector in the country the quality of our students output such as their mph thesis is something we are proud of for example our programme has the largest number of people whose abstract were accepted for presentation at the international conference on family planning supported by gates institute majority of the presentations were actually from our alumni and they were based on their mph theses again we are proud of the quality of our students and alumni outlook for immediate future concerns one of the things we are doing is to focus on areas of our comparative strength and there are at least four areas in which we believe very strongly that we have comparative advantage over other institutions in nigeria today issues of adolescent health development with our members playing leading role in the development of national policies and programmes and mounting training programmes with the federal ministry of health monitoring and evaluation where we have highly competent members in departments of community health and demography among others bolstered also with the new collaboration with measure evaluation population gender issues in reproductive health with the pioneering and continuous leading roles of some of our members at national level in terms of policy-making and programming and the potential of partnering with the centre for gender and social policy population and development with the leading position of our university in demographic issues nationally and the existing training partnerships with the national population commission we are looking at how we can focus on these areas and move on to become regional centre for training in some of these areas in the next one or two years we want to do what we can do best and do them as best as we can research and community engagements our community-based work in ijebu-jesha is still ongoing although it has slowed down in recent times luckily the leadership of the local government area is enthusiastic about the partnership and willing to make it work what we are doing currently is to re-examine the dimension of our work in that community and asking ourselves strategic questions as to how to move forward again to ensure greater impact and sustainability we feel highly inspired by the example of what we saw in rakai in uganda which some of us took time to visit during the family planning conference we feel very strongly that we should be aiming at something like that at least in principle so our conclusion is to commit more efforts to the work at iloko and work strategically to transform it into a full-fledged population surveillance site that meets international standard in that regards we are actively discussing with indepth and we hope to see results soon definitely in the context of the new considerations the 8

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work would have to expand beyond ijebu-jesha to a few other communities in the same oriade local government in addition we are starting a longitudinal study in ipetumodu as part of the multi-country family health and wealth study being coordinated by the gates institute other roles at the national front the other inspiring experience in this new phase of the partnership is about our new work with other universities we are working with the university of abuja to mentor the institution in the area of public health with more specific focus on population and reproductive health issues we will be working with them to strengthen their capacity of their human resources for teaching and conducting research in the area of reproductive health ultimately we will be supporting them to establish and run a masters programme in public health we have had useful discussions with the university and we are making steady progress in our relationships we see this approach as one way we can multiply our effect the other thing we are trying to do with universities is in terms of what we call the network of postgraduate public heath training institutions in nigeria we want to use our experience to benefit the entire university system in the country where possible we are linking up other universities meeting annually to share experiences and materials including curricula and training resources on population and reproductive health in order to strengthen capacities in different parts of the country again this way we would be multiplying our effect this country is too large too big for us to sit down in ife and assume we can make all the desired impact only on our own our philosophy is that our partnership with the gates institute has empowered us to empower others teaching academic programmes activities training programmes t there has also been a phenomenal increase in the number of students enrolling into the executive mph programme the number has grown within the four years of the existence of the programme from a pioneer set of 46 students to the current set of 100 students raining has been at the heart of the population and reproductive health programme at ife this stems in part from the fact that the project itself was originally built around the population and reproductive health track of the master of public health programme and short courses meant to develop the capacity of professionals in the field while there have not been radical changes in the content and orientation of both the regular and executive mph programmes in the past two years there are indications that the next few years will witness remarkable transformations of the academic component of the project because of some new partnerships being built and proposals being considered the fact that the mph programme at ife admits graduates of disciplines other than medicine accounts for the large number of applicants that it attracts this poses a challenge it puts a lot of pressure on the small faculty ironically it is also impossible to admit all eligible applicants and sometimes desirous and qualified candidates are left out the mph programme which started in the 2002/2003 session is in the seventh year the number of students admitted into the regular programme have risen gradually from 11 in the first year 5 of whom opted for the population rh track to 20 in the current set of the 80 people that applied in the 2009/2010 session only 25 were offered admission and 20 eventually took up the offer there has also been a phenomenal increase 9

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in the number of students enrolling into the executive mph programme the number has grown within the four years of the existence of the programme from a pioneer set of 46 students to the current set of 100 students the first set students have all satisfied the requirements for graduation and are only awaiting senate approval of their results the second set students are ronding up their course work and are beginning to work on their long essays awhile the third set students are just beginning course work different times to enable them mount their courses for online access in the near future efforts are still ongoing in this direction and the major challenge to the early realization of this dream is the state of the internet facilities in the university but there are assurances from the university center for distance learning that this will improve very soon new academic programmes in addition to the existing academic programmes the prph in partnership with the relevant academic departments of the university is in the process of mounting new programmes both for shor t courses/diplomas and degree programmes proposals are being currently reviewed for postgraduate diploma programmes in demography and in community health talks are currently ongoing within the programme and with other organizations to expand the number of tracks on offer on the mph programme to include such new areas as community medicine environmental health and monitoring evaluation ultimately the prph would like to see a phd/drph in population and reproductive health take off before the end of this phase of the project online platform for the executive mph programme the success of the part-time executive mph programme has made other institutions in the region to express interest in starting similar programmes the programme is spread over a longer period than the regular mph programme moreover students on it who are mainly professionals come for two weeks at the beginning of each semester and subsequently for a weekend each month in a bid to ease the logistics of the programme and accommodate more eligible applicants the project is exploring the possibility of adopting the technology of online education capacity building sessions have been organized for the faculty members at institutional mentoring/association of public health institutions in nigeria ife is playing a leading role in the formation of the association of schools of public health in nigeria it has received encouragement and funding in this regard from the gates institute dr ijadunola the academic coordinator for the prph is the focal person for this initiative at least two meetings have been held with representatives of the various medical schools offering an mph programme in the last two years usually coinciding with the annual scientific conference of the association of public health physicians of nigeria issues being discussed include strengthening the curriculum for public health education in the country and taking leadership for public health research in the public sector a related development is the arrangement to provide institutional mentorship for a new graduate programme in public health at the university of abuja dr abubakar jamda a product of the ife mph programme and the current head of department of community health at the unversity of abuja is coordinating the abuja end of the project currently talks are at an advanced stage between both universities and even within each university on the successful mode of operation for the programme 10

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research initiatives community engagement i ujeb ily m fa a pl es a j g in nn ct je o pr the population and reproductive health programme prhp supports the family planning clinic at ijebu-jesa a sub-urban settlement ijebu-jesa is the headquarters of oriade local government osun state in southwestern nigeria he population and reproductive health programme prhp supports the family planning clinic at ijebujesa a sub-urban settlement ijebujesa is the headquarters of oriade local government osun state in southwestern nigeria it has twelve towns among which are ijebu-ijesa iloko-ijesa and ipetu-ijesa even though some members of the community initially opposed the initiative the support of the local government chairperson honourable wole ogunseimi who withstood the protest and bad publicity that first greeted the project helped to sustain and popularise it members of the community have since then accepted the centre and now consider it a success story the family planning clinic is located in the primary health centre ijebujesa a facility that belong to the owode local government area it took off in march 2008 the extensively reconstructed building t 9 has been transformed into a clinic to make it suitable for its present purpose it only recently upgraded the facility by replacing the floor tiles and providing more facilities three health personnel led by mrs k.o mosobalaje oversee the adjoining maternity centre run by the clinic the workers at the clinic are members of staff of the oriade local government and they carry out family planning counselling health investigation community enlightenment and tool demonstration the clinic opens on weekdays apart from making token payments for commodities given to them clients at the centre do not pay for services at the centre the centre is easy to access because it is located at the heart of ijebu-ijesa records at the centre give insight into its growing impact in the community for instance there has been an increase in the number of clients recorded at the centre from an average of 5 per week when it was opened to an average of 15 per week in the first quarter of 2010 annual birth record at the adjoining maternity centre has also reduced from an annual average of about 200 mrs mosobalaje interprets this as reflecting the changing attitude of the people to family planning and the growing acceptance of child spacing this means that more women can now engage in productive ventures as against the trend in the past in which they were being delivered of children every other year the ijebu-ijesa family planning clinic has the prospect of serving as a centre where medical students can acquire field experience the chairperson of oriade local government hourable oluwole ogunseimi would also want the facility expanded because it has come to be a model in osun state he would also want the programme to register its presence more forcefully by providing a conspicuous sign board for the centre 11

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