Grand Challenges Nigeria, FG, Governors Unite to Combat Maternal, Newborn Deaths

The Federal Government and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have strengthened efforts to scale up locally developed healthcare innovations, with renewed calls for increased investment in research to reduce maternal and newborn mortality across the country.

The push gained momentum on Friday at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Grand Challenges Nigeria Annual Meeting and Innovation Exchange, where government officials, researchers, development partners and healthcare stakeholders called for stronger collaboration to translate research findings into practical interventions.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Public Health in the Office of the Vice-President, Uju-Rochas Anwukah, urged state governments to adopt and fund home-grown health innovations, warning that promising research would have little impact if it failed to improve healthcare delivery and save lives.

Anwukah, who is also Board Chair of Grand Challenges Nigeria, said the country must move beyond generating research findings to ensuring that successful innovations were integrated into healthcare systems and sustained through government funding and institutional support.

“Too many promising ideas end up as reports on a shelf, while the families they were meant to help never feel the difference. This meeting is about closing that gap,” she said.

She disclosed that 10 Nigerian-led projects had received seed funding of up to N60 million each, while eight beneficiaries participated in the annual meeting to showcase their innovations and explore partnerships with institutions capable of implementing their solutions.

According to her, Vice-President Kashim Shettima launched the initiative at the State House two years ago, making Nigeria the seventh African country to join the Grand Challenges network.

She stressed that maternal and newborn healthcare must remain central to national development priorities, noting that the survival and wellbeing of mothers and children were fundamental to human capital development and economic productivity.

“That investment has to begin with the mother and the newborn because a healthy start is the foundation of every productive life,” she said.

The presidential aide, however, cautioned against the tendency to abandon healthcare interventions after donor funding expires, describing such outcomes as missed opportunities.

“A pilot that ends when the grant ends is not a success at all. It is a missed opportunity,” she added.

She identified credible evidence, institutional ownership, adequately equipped frontline health workers and sustainable financing as essential conditions for expanding successful health innovations.

Anwukah also challenged federal and state governments, as well as development partners, to make specific commitments on the innovations they intended to adopt, including implementation timelines and the officials responsible for delivering them.

“When we gather again next year, the question will not be what we discussed but what we delivered together,” she said.

Also speaking, the Senior Programme Officer, Nutrition at the Gates Foundation, Alem Hadera Abay, described maternal and child health as areas requiring urgent and sustained intervention.

Abay expressed concern that Nigeria continued to record high maternal and child mortality despite improvements in some child health indicators.

He urged the country to intensify efforts towards meeting its commitments under the World Health Assembly targets and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Mukhtar Yawale Muhammad, called for stronger partnerships among researchers, regulatory agencies, state governments and private-sector organisations to ensure that research translated into practical healthcare solutions.

Muhammad said promising research projects must be supported beyond their pilot stages through institutional backing, sustainable financing and clearly defined implementation strategies.

He emphasised the need to involve potential users and implementing institutions from the early stages of research development, rather than waiting until pilot projects had been completed before seeking adoption.

In his remarks, the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Dr Abdulateef O.T. Shittu, represented by the Head of Health Team, Dr Chinekwu Oreh, acknowledged the challenges confronting state governments in maternal and newborn healthcare, primary healthcare delivery and sustainable health financing.

He said healthcare innovations must be designed around the realities of Nigeria’s health system to achieve meaningful and lasting impact.

“The question before us is therefore not simply what innovations exist, but which ones work, under what conditions, and how we can make them available to more Nigerians,” he said.

Shittu urged stakeholders to identify institutions capable of adopting promising innovations and establish realistic timelines for implementation.

“The true value of innovation lies not in the novelty of an idea, but in its capacity to improve lives,” he added.

Earlier, the Programme Director of Grand Challenges Nigeria, Godwin Bamsa, said the initiative was established to mobilise funding for locally developed innovations addressing Nigeria’s health and development challenges.

He explained that the programme seeks to identify local healthcare needs, support Nigerian researchers and connect innovators with institutions capable of adopting their solutions.

The President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Professor Salisu Abubakar, called for stronger partnerships among researchers, government institutions and development partners.

Abubakar recalled that Grand Challenges Nigeria was launched in November 2024 with support from the Gates Foundation and the Office of the Vice-President to promote and fund locally driven innovations.

He urged the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology to demonstrate concrete commitments towards funding and implementing promising research outcomes.

Meanwhile, Associate Partner at Dalberg, Chimdi D. Owundiegu, challenged Nigerian innovators to strengthen partnerships with relevant institutions to bridge the gap between research and implementation.

She observed that many promising innovations remained underutilised because of weak connections between research organisations and the institutions responsible for deploying their findings.

Owundiegu also identified the proposed National Research Institute as a potential mechanism for addressing fragmentation in research funding and coordination.

She, however, stressed that the proposed institution must establish effective partnerships with public- and private-sector organisations to ensure that research outcomes translate into measurable improvements in maternal and child healthcare.