The federal government has stepped up efforts to position self-care as a national health priority, calling for stronger advocacy and coordinated action at national and sub-national levels to drive effective implementation across Nigeria.
The call was made through the National Self-Care Advocacy Network (N-SAN), a multi-stakeholder platform convened by the government to align advocacy around self-care and translate policy commitments into practical action.
The network brings together government agencies, development partners, professional health bodies, civil society organisations, the private sector, media, youth groups and faith-based organisations.Speaking on the purpose of the initiative, the Director of the Health Promotion Division, John Uruakpa, said the network was established to give clear direction to self-care advocacy nationwide and ensure measurable progress.
“As a network, our objectives are clear to clarify the network’s purpose and importance, and to identify priority advocacy actions that will drive meaningful progress on self-care in Nigeria,” Uruakpa said.He explained that N-SAN is embedded in national policy architecture, noting that it is one of the core requirements of Nigeria’s National Self-Care Guideline.
“NSAN is one of the three requirements of the National Self-Care Guideline, and it provides an opportunity for members to implement the recommendations of the demand generation strategy for self-care in a coordinated and practical way,” he said.
Uruakpa stressed that effective advocacy depends heavily on strategic partnerships, particularly with the media, which he described as central to expanding public awareness and sustaining momentum.“We cannot do without the media.
The media is very powerful within this network, and in fact, they form the cornerstone for advancing our self-care advocacy and reaching the wider public,” he said, while commending partners such as the White Ribbon Alliance for their support.
He also warned that national-level action alone would not deliver lasting results, urging stronger engagement at state, local and community levels.
“Self-care is not driven only at the national level. It has to be strengthened at the sub-national and community levels because self-care is about people and their everyday lives,” he said, adding that government could not achieve its objectives without broad-based collaboration.
The Deputy Director in the Health Promotion Division, Ezioma Madu, said advocacy should be assessed by outcomes rather than activities, insisting that real success lies in visible action.
“Advocacy is successful only when we begin to see government action, public action or community action in response to what we are advocating for,” she said, noting that awareness alone does not amount to impact.
“Advocacy becomes successful when people take ownership when self-care is understood and practiced even in the most remote communities and even in classrooms, not just discussed,” Madu added.
She emphasised that self-care initiatives are designed to complement, not replace, the health system, while highlighting the importance of data in tracking progress.
“For everything we do, there has to be data. Any work that is done without adequate reporting is as good as not being done,” she said, describing self-care as a people-centred, evidence-driven pathway to achieving universal health coverage.
Also speaking, the Director and Acting Head of the Reproductive Health Division in the Family Health Department of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Lawrence Chinedu Anyanwu, said self-care empowers citizens to make informed decisions about their health and seek care appropriately.
“Self-care helps citizens to access the right information for healthy behaviour, understand how to keep themselves healthy, and also know when and how to approach the hospital,” Anyanwu said, stressing that collaboration among stakeholders is essential for scale and sustainability.
On funding challenges, Dr. Ummukhulthum Bajago of the Family Planning programme said commodities account for a significant share of family planning costs, warning that funding gaps directly translate into stock-outs with serious health consequences.
“A funding gap represents stock-out, and no stock-out means no products and no programmes,” she said, calling for stronger domestic resource mobilisation to avert maternal and neonatal deaths, unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
From the civil society perspective, Omolade Ogunlela of the White Ribbon Alliance said the advocacy network was created to strengthen accountability and widen engagement beyond technical coordination.
“An integral part of our work is accountability,” she said, adding that the network plays a critical role in ensuring that self-care budgets, plans and commitments are followed through.
She stressed that collective action remains the strongest driver of advocacy success, noting that a unified message would deliver greater impact across states and communities.
