ARFH has designed and implemented different innovative interventions aimed at responding to the adverse reproductive health situation in Nigeria especially in the areas of Maternal, Child and Newborn Health through capacity building for health and non health professionals, mentoring of organisations and youth programming. Key among these was the successful introduction of the integrated market and Community Based Distribution (CBD) of family planning commodities into family planning services and provision of basic care (management of malaria, fever and diarrhea) for children by trained market agents. The monumental impact that this approach had on the health of the rural communities in Nigeria made the Federal Ministry of Health to mainstream the community based distribution approach into the structure of the Primary Health Care System in the country. Some of the poor rural communities where ARFH piloted and implemented the CBD approach were the following local government areas spread across five states of Nigeria: Akinyele, Birinkin Ladi, Funakaye, Ifo, Ogun waterside, Bassa, Bogoro, Ganjuwa, Yamatu-Deba, Estako central and Uhunmwode.
Significant achievements that were made are as tabulated below:
Table 1: Details of services provided by CBD agents from Nov 2005-June, 2008
SERVICES | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | TOTAL |
Family Planning Method Users | 5,275 | 71,376 | 147,697 | 651,513 | 875,861 |
Pregnancy monitoring for Ante-Natal Care attendance | 575 | 3,307 | 11,100 | 4,813 | 19,795 |
Delivered mother with fever referred for diagnosis and treatment | 89 | 804 | 2,919 | 2,073 | 5,885 |
Total | 5,939 | 75,487 | 161,716 | 658,399 | 901,541 |