The HCE Coalition provides both a platform and a forum for knowledge exchange and peer-to-peer learning — not only among health campaign programs, but also partners and stakeholders at the country, regional, and global levels. In alignment with that mission, the HCE Coalition Leadership Team held a CAS learning exchange event with the Ethiopia and Nigeria country teams on 18 November 2024.
At the event, the country teams shared and discussed their CAS successes, challenges, and lessons learned to date. Both teams stressed the need for support across the following areas: technical assistance, tools and resources, advocacy, and funding. Both also emphasized that support from the HCE Coalition Program Office and partners was central to progress made in 2024 and will be critical to sustaining that momentum into 2025.
The learning exchange was centered around three core questions:
1) To what extent were CAS recommendations suitable for adoption and customization to country context?
2) What strategies were used to secure stakeholder engagement during the CAS planning and implementation process in the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and/or National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA)?
3) Now that each country has their customized CAS and the beginnings of an implementation plan, what are the next steps in finalizing it and getting state approval?
First, Zaiya Umar (FMoH) and Dr. Shehu U. Hassan (NPHCDA) discussed how Nigeria’s customized CAS is strongly aligned with the national priorities embodied in the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) (“One Plan, One Budget, One Report, One Conversaton”), as well as the vision and priorities of the NPHCDA.
They reported that as a result of the CAS, program managers across health programs are regularly meeting and sharing information in workshops and subgroup virtual meetings, which has not been done in a systematic way previously. They also noted that the HCE campaign mapping tool, customized as part of the CAS, has proved instrumental in raising interest among high-level stakeholders, as well as sustaining political buy-in for integration work.
Representing Ethiopia, Dr. Lelisa Amanuel (FMoH) discussed several key CAS achievements, including the establishment of a National Steering Committee for health campaigns—which is led and championed by Dr. Dereje Duguma, State Minister for Health Services and Programs. Dr. Lelisa also noted the benefits of their CAS feasibility assessment, which is now being used to develop the implementation plan for Ethiopia’s customized CAS.