In the quest for expanding access to sustainable pro-poor health financing options and essential health services for the poor and vulnerable population, DGI Consult commenced capacity strengthening for State Social Health Insurance Agencies (SSHIAs) and State Primary Health Care Development Agencies (SPHCDAs) in Nasarawa, Plateau and Zamfara, with funding from the USAID Local Health System Sustainability (LHSS) Project.

The capacity strengthening commenced with a detailed organizational capacity assessment for the six agencies through a co-creation approach to elicit critical capacity gaps across 12 capacity dimensions. Guided by the findings from the assessment, DGI Consult worked with the agencies to design a capacity-strengthening implementation plan for each of the agencies using a tripod approach comprising (a) competency and leadership training; (b) tools development; and (c) system design to address the identified capacity gaps.

Thereafter, a 4-day co-creation technical competency and leadership training was organized for the SSHIAs and SPHCDAs in each of the 3 states, in collaboration with the LHSS team to strengthen identified gaps in management and leadership, partnership and coordination, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI), and technical capacity (health insurance marketing and communication, resource mobilization, monitoring and supportive supervision, Minimum Service Package, and HRH management). The 4-day training was delivered through module presentations to deepen the knowledge of participants on key concepts in the identified areas of gaps. Group work, brainstorming sessions and plenary discussions were also held to ensure that the training sessions were participatory. In each state, participants developed their agency-specific mentoring plan containing the mentoring and tool development activities across the capacity-strengthening areas.

Currently, DGI Consult is jointly implementing the mentoring plan with the agencies to institutionalize the learning outputs from the technical competency and leadership training through mentoring and handholding to promote the sustainability of the intervention. The agencies are also being supported to develop specific tools for their operations using a co-creation approach.