Milestones for our exhilarating growth and new prospects: Q2 2023 update
Dear friends, supporters, and donors of Lafiya Nigeria,
The last few months have been every bit as fruitful and exciting as the busy start of our year here at Lafiya Nigeria, and we are excited to share with you below some of our most recent developments.
1. Continuing scale-up of our core programme
Building on a successful start of the year by scaling to two states, we are pleased to report that our core Sayana Press programme has now reached over 10,000 women. As reported in our previous update, expansion of operations into Kebbi State has been an essential aspect of our programme, and represents an enormous opportunity for impact.
Uptake of family planning in Kebbi is the lowest of all the Nigerian states; only around 3% of women both married and in union use any form of contraception (compared with the 17% at national level). Uneven distribution networks and limited governmental involvement lead to widespread stockouts throughout Kebbi state, hindering progress towards equitable access and leaving extensive unmet need. Combined with evidence showing that around 70% of women would look to use child spacing products in the future, the scope for enacting change in Kebbi is evident.
To learn a bit more about Kebbi and what’s happening, please feel free to read this report previously prepared by our intern Astrid.
2. Developing our SMS-reminder pilot
At Lafiya Nigeria, we are committed to optimising our impact through evidence-based interventions. As such, the last few months have seen us working on an SMS-reminder pilot – which deeply complements our core distribution programme in our theory of change – and we aim to roll this out in the coming weeks.
“Gold standard” randomised controlled trials has indicated long-term increases in adherence to vaccination regimens coupled with the introduction of a text-based reminder scheme; we furthermore, see recent evidence extending this finding to improved family planning outcomes. Targeted at increasing long-term engagement, the reminder scheme delivers an SMS ‘nudge’ before their next dose of Sayana Press is due. We hope that, by complementing our existing direct distribution programme, this pilot will further empower women and drive improvements in long-term outcomes. We will be updating you more on this front as we launch our program.
3. Acceptance into the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation program
We are thrilled to announce that we have recently been accepted onto the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation program, out of hundreds of applicants worldwide. We are stoked to deepen our partnership wit this network of changemakers, and are excited to receive further mentorship and network support, to help scale our operations. Charity Entrepreneurship’s track record is self-evident, as over the past 5 years it has provided around $2m to their 20+ charities in launch grants, as well as helping them gain access to more than $25m of other forms of grants. We look forward to providing updates on the outcome of this exciting opportunity for Lafiya’s future.
4. Thought leadership: our feature in Vox
In further exciting news, we have recently been featured in Vox's Future Perfect column. Our co-founder and Executive Director, Klau, has provided their insight into the cultural landscape of family planning in Nigeria, highlighting the importance of explaining interventions in the context of religion as one way to reduce stigma. We encourage you to give the article a read to understand more about the current challenges facing maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa.
We hope that this update highlights the exciting future ahead of Lafiya Nigeria as it continues in its mission to achieve equitable access to family planning in Nigeria. We remain extremely thankful to have you with us as we continue to grow throughout the months ahead.
Best wishes,
Klau, Dr Fatima, Jefferson, and Nasiru
