Nigeria is set to establish the Maternal Mortality Action (MAMA) Fund as part of an ongoing negotiation for a $500 million loan from the World Bank.
This is according to a Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the Nigeria: Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program, which was seen by TheWitness.
For this program, Nigeria expects an approval from the World Bank for a $500 million loan next month.
The initiative comes as part of the broader $65 million Investment Project Financing (IPF) component of the HOPE Health Program, which seeks to improve access to quality healthcare services across Nigeria.
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.”
