Recommendations for ‘The Think Tank in Nigeria’s Health (3T+H)’

Written by Dr Aminu Magashi

Last week I published an article titled Advocating for “The Think Tank in Nigeria’s Health (3T+H)” which was an outcome of a facebook discussion titled “Synopsis Engagement 2” on Sunday, 12th January 2014 with Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara. In my concluding paragraph I mentioned that I would highlight the questions I asked and her responses and what I considered a humble recommendation in moving forward.

I am so glad that many people have read the article and already are sending useful comments and declaring interest to be part of the planned 3T+H.
I asked her “Nigeria has unfulfilled commitments that hamper on achieving access and quality of care; US$11 Million for the annual procurement of Reproductive Health/Family Planning (RH/FP) commodities over a period of 4 years vis-à-vis Nigeria’s Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) of about 10% .
Political will to galvanize resources for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) is grossly inadequate and we are experiencing inadequate coordination and ownership of MNCH programmes. We also committed to allocate 15% of our budget to health sector in line with the 2001 Abuja Declaration vis-à-vis our current 6% budget allocation and we are spending $20 per capita annually while $54 per capita is the desired minimum target. What is your take on this?”
Below was her brilliant response “You are right. My take is that this is a just a symptom of the state of our dear country. In every sector, you will find similar analysis and you will be surprised that the indicators in education and agriculture sectors are even worse. While we look up to government officials and politicians to do the right things, the greater challenge are that we must take our futures into our hands; take responsibilities for changing our futures.
I wouldn’t be too wrong if I say we are sometimes a little naive in thinking people who do not share our ideals will do our bids- it is not human law; they will not. What I am saying is that all the good people need to be engaged in active decisions about leadership and development in the country.
While we continue what you and I do, advocating and pressuring governments to live up to their commitment, this year provides all of us yet another opportunity to be active in the warming political discussions in the country. We need to have strong interests in who become our councillors, LGA Chairmen and Governors.
Perhaps we should articulate some key tasks and support candidates who will do our bid or even better if some of us want to contest, we will support them. What I mean is while we address the symptoms, we need to tackle the root causes of our problems. Honestly, I am personally convinced until the really “Good People” who care about these issues and the development of our communities actively participate in good governance, not much will change. This is aptly said by Plato, ‘One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”.
The reader could see from my question and her response, we shared a common believe that something need to be done in a sustained manner to improve the health sector. My follow up question was “thanks Dr Mandara for your response on the ‘good’ people participating in good governance.
And looking at the majority of the questions asked and responded by you , all related to improving health outcomes, prioritizing health and changing the way development partners operate, all these bugs down to like minds reorganising and working collectively to position health advocacy on the table of the policy makers and health players even if it means remotely and virtually. I am interested in ‘how do we move from this small discussion to something more regular and sustained may be like “Think Tank to Nigeria’s Health Sector?” What will you advice?” and she emphatically and succinctly responded “I agree, let’s do that”.
According to Wikipedia “a think tank is an organisation that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture etc”. Many think tanks are non-profit advocacy groups, businesses or private individuals.
3T+H should be relevant in the Nigerian context in order to bridge the gap between evidence and policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. The reader may agree with me that many of our decisions in health sector are deficient in use of evidence to plan and implement. Many of our health researches aren’t regarded as fit-for-purpose by policy-makers probably because of failure to produce clear policy outcomes and inadequacy in identify policy implications as well as communicating findings in a way that is accessible or meaningful to the non-specialist (most policy-makers are non-specialists). 
3T+H Potential functions
1.      Support in conducting public health policy research and analysis which operates independently from governments while keeping its primary function of helping government understand and make informed choices about issues of domestic and international health issues.
2.      Identifying, articulating, and evaluating current health policy issues, proposals, programs and transforming ideas and emerging problems into policy issues thus facilitating public understanding of domestic and international policy issues;
3.      Providing a constructive forum for the exchange of ideas and information between key stakeholders in the policy formulation process.
4.      Support in writing articles, policy briefs and monographs, conducting evaluations of government programs and disseminating research findings and conducting various outreach activities (public hearing before legislatures , media appearances and seminars )