‘States Can Drive TCI Programmes’

Director of “The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Nigeria hub”, Dr. Victor Imuwahen Igharo, has assured that governments in all the states they are currently operating in are capable of owning the programme at the end of the day.
Dr. Igharo, who gave the assurance recently in an exclusive interview fears of sustainability of the programme when it is finally handed over to the various state governments, and noted that how the programme will be sustained is part of TCI.
“For us, sustainability is actually designed and engrained within the core of TCI”, he said.
He explained that the first belief of TCI is that states have the capacity to drive any programme they chose to venture into, including reproductive health.
“Consequently, all that is required is for the government and other stakeholder to have the focus and capacity to drive the programme”, he stated further.
“So, for TCI, our job is simple; first, build the capacity of government, identify high impact interventions as it relates to reproductive health, package those interventions and simplify it in a way that government and anybody can implement”, he said.
To ensure adequate implementation, Igharo stated that before coming into partnership with TCI, they ensured that governments make financial commitment by investing fund.
He said: “They need to put their own money on the table, so that even midway into TCI, we expect that government would have identified funding source for Family Planning through its budget line.”
They would have also identified other collaborators that can expand the resource base for Family Planning.
“Lastly, we think if government understands what the issues are, what the high impact interventions have worked, based on documented evidence in the past, the they shouldn’t waste their resources on doing things that don’t work. This is sustainability”, he said.
TCI aims to encourage states to own-up reproductive health programmes by first building their capacities to be able to sustain the programmes and also create awareness.

Sogbeba Dokubo