By Cyriacus Nnaji
Coaching, the process of empowering others to grow and succeed has become germane towards ensuring the sustainability of family planning uptake in Lagos State. Coaching supports, and empowers individuals or teams to achieve personal and, or professional targets, develop new skills, improve and optimize performance. A coach is more than just a guide; they are a catalyst for transformation, empowering individuals and teams to reach their highest potential.
No wonder The Challenge Initiative (TCI), an organization led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, a ‘business unusual ‘platform that empowers local governments to rapidly and sustainably scale high impact practices and other interventions to benefit urban poor communities; introduced the coaching system towards enhancing the sustainability of family planning uptake in Lagos State.
The incontrovertibility of the importance of the coaching concept was revealed at a Review Meeting for Lagos State Family Planning Managers and Technical coaches organised by TCI at Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Alausa Ikeja, on Friday, October 4, 2024; the meeting was for officers who have the capacity for high impact practices for family planning and sexual reproductive health Programme in the state.
Dr Omotunde Odonye, State Programme Manager for The Challenge Initiative (TCI), averred that the aim of the coaching concept introduced by TCI in Lagos State was to build capacity for high impact practices for Family Planning.
Dr Odonye said, “What we are doing today is basically The Challenge Initiative TCI Pioneered meeting with state coaches. We call them state coaches because we regard them as officers who have the capacity for high impact practices for family planning and at the same time sexual reproductive health Programme in the state. They have the capacity to lead high impact practices and interventions and they also have the capacity to transfer it. Looking at their work so far, we have seen that they can, because they have done this multiple times. It has reflected in data that they have that capacity.”
The coaches who were either managerial or technical coaches were gathered to enhance their capacity for the sustainability of all TCI implementation strategies. “So the review meeting is to see how sustainable the coaching system which is something that TCI uses to implement can be leveraged on. We use coaching methodology in our implementation. We also expect that we are able to raise coaches that can continue to implement even after TCI.”
On sustainability of TCI’s interventions in the state she said, “We are currently in the Intensification Phase and it is proposed for two years, however irrespective of whatever happens after 2025 when the programme is expected to come to an end, every project always has duration. And it is expected that after that phase the elements, the successes, the impact of that program is sustained. The coaching is geared towards sustainability.
“There is a lot to be done in spite of a lot of work that has been done and it is because of the dynamic population and also the dynamic challenges that face a mega city like Lagos. So what I am saying basically, after TCI we expect that each coach will have the capacity to navigate future challenges. So the idea is to build capacity to be able to implement strategies that work, those strategies, the elements in them can be used to navigate future challenges.”
On issue of funding after departure of TCI from Lagos State, Odonye said “For funding, one of the things we are doing is that the coaches we have are not just on one aspect, we have coaches on resource mobilisation, we have coaches in the area of advocacy. Inside this room is someone in every integral and important department, we call it thematic area.”
Badejo Olusegun Isaiah, the State Health Educator and Director of Promotion, Ministry of Health, Lagos State, stated that TCI massively ensures support for family Planning and care services in the state and in many states in Nigeria, supporting family planning, care services, provision of commodities and of course ensuring high impact performance in the state. He said “Looking at what they have done in the past in the area of family planning care services, you see that they use some strategies like advocacy, and their advocacy comes in terms of support from government and other notable people to support family planning, since it is not a thing the development partner can do especially in the area of provision of drugs and of course family planning commodities in the state. Also they use a strategy of coordination, coordination of family planning activities across the state and across vis-a-vis delivery services, and also in the area of monitoring and evaluation in the state in order to take data and use data for informed decision. That is what they do.”
Badejo who gave TCI high score as far as its activities in Lagos are concerned, spoke on what he called scale up of high impact performances, which informed the concept of coaching. “What high impact performances mean is that they are providing family planning services for target audience and what is this target audience, they are the women and men, everybody, adolescents. Then the use of data for informed decision to identify gaps and of course, harness solution for those gaps. Again in the new phase of the project, we said, what do we need to do that was not in existence but which can help to improve or strengthen the family planning provision and utilisation in the state? So that has brought a new concept, the new concept is what is called the coach concept. So coaches are people that are identified across the state who would provide leadership as mentors, the guide, the support, they provide knowledge to the people, whether they come to the facility or are engaged at the community level. So it is a new strategy, it is a new concept, it has high impact performances as far as family planning services are concerned.”
On qualities of those selected as coaches, he said “There are criteria for selection, their role and their characteristics, for characteristics, you must be somebody who is knowledgeable, you must be somebody who is high driven, you must be somebody who provides good mentorship, you must be somebody who can bring people together and guide them, who can give adequate knowledge in all that family planning services is all about in order to do what, to create demand, service provision, to increase the data, these are some of the things that are expected from them. So they intensify family planning care services though strengthening and demand generation by encouraging people for uptake of family planning services across the state.”
For Reverend Joe Ihitegbulem, Senior Pastor Last Commandment Ministry Oshodi, Lagos State, who is also Secretary, Interfaith Public Health Advocacy Lagos in Lagos, stated that interfaith is one of the key NGOs that is approaching the Christian and Moslem clerics on the importance of family planning and childbirth spacing. He added that the primary role of the group is therefore, to change the mentality and religious inhibitions that encumber easy accessibility of family planning especially to women. “So most of the time, every month I go to two Mosques and two Churches, therefore coaching to me is still talking to these religious leaders on what family planning is all about.”
He disclosed that many people don’t actually need more children because they don’t have the capacity to train these children. “So we try to separate sex from wanting a child. All sexes are not because you wanted a child, so you can have as many sexes as you like but have a child when you want it.”
Adewuyi Temidare Jenny, a Health Education Officer with the Lagos State Government, specialising in Demand Generation for reproductive health unbuttoned the role of FP Managers in the uptake of family planning in Lagos State, “I know that the family planning managers are in charge of commodities that will be used during the family planning services, they also educate clients on the several family planning methods to the clients, they engage them on the benefits, advantages, disadvantages, the side effects, if any, and allow the clients to make informed choices concerning the commodities.”
She stated that the FP managers are also family planning providers that assist clients in taking up methods, they also engage them in methods that need to be inserted and other minor procedures, adding that they do follow up too. “They also encourage those clients to come for checkups and they also gather data, because this is data driven.
Speaking on the coaching concept introduced by TCI, she said “TCI has done well, they managed the government and the private sector so well that they have given us training, built our capacity, they have implemented their programmes that it is our programme now, so when they leave the sustainability level for us will be high, because they have driven us to those high impact interventions in all the thematic areas concerning family planning, talk about advocacy and demand.”
