Society for Family Health (SFH) is a foremost Nigerian charitable, non-governmental social marketing organisation established in 1985 with a mission to empower Nigerians, particularly the poor and vulnerable, to lead healthier lives by working in Nigeria's health and development sector. SFH uses social marketing and behavioural change communication to improve access to essential health information, services and products to motivate the adoption of healthy behaviours by individuals and families.

SFH supports the Federal Government's efforts in improving

quality of health services for its citizens by rendering services in

three major health areas – Maternal and Child Health services

specifically, Maternal health, Integrated management of Neonatal

and Childhood Illnesses (IMNCI), malaria, nutrition, and diarrhea

control. Other areas include, HIV&AIDS prevention and control

and Reproductive Health (Child Spacing, Cervical cancer

screening and preventative treatment as well as Post abortion

care).

In 2008, SFH received funding from a Large Anonymous Donor

(LAD) through Population Services International (PSI) to

implement a nationwide family planning project with specific

emphasis on long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs). This

was to be implemented in the private sector. SFH subsequently

recruited providers from the private sector across 22 states of the

federation from all the six geo political zones. By 2010, SFH had

organised and trained providers in over 200 private facilities

across the selected states to implement LARC services. This gave

rise to the first Social Franchise organisation in Nigeria then

called the Happy Mothers Network. This network was highly

successful in organising providers in the private sector, building

their capacity in Long acting contraceptives (IUCD and Implants),

and building a robust demand generation team of interpersonal

communications agents (IPCs) that created demand and

mobilised clients to these facilities. By 2010, SFH, through the

Happy Mothers Network had provided over 48,000 IUDs and

4500 implants through the network.

Due to the success of the Happy Mothers network, SFH took a

strategic decision to expand the scope of the franchise beyond

family planning services to include other maternal health care

services, integrated management of childhood illnesses, HIV

counselling and testing, cervical cancer screening and

preventative therapy, malaria, and diarrhoea disease prevention.

“Before joining the franchise, Otobi Clinic was providing few services and almost anyhow, just the way we were taught in school- practicing the old school way” but now, everything has changed. I have been trained by SFH on several health areas. I am so very happy because I have learnt a lot, my skills have improved and the clinic now offers more range of services such as family planning, CCS&PT, maternal and child health servicse. Otobi clinic has changed, there is increased client �ow, and the look of the clinic have improved”. -Mrs. Atinuke Raheem, Otobi Clinic and Maternity, Imeko, Ogun state.

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SFH ‘markets’ the social franchise in communities through the support of interpersonal communication agents which is an important offering to a private sector provider.

This later expansion in scale and scope led to the transformation

of the Happy Mothers Network into the Healthy Family Network

brand of the organisation. This new and expanded franchise

brand was supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates

Foundation, the British Department for International

Development (DIFD) with continued support from the Large

Anonymous Donor. This additional funding supported the rapid

expansion in the scale and scope of the network and services

provided.

The Healthy Family Network is aimed at strengthening the

existing health care system in Nigeria by engaging private sector

providers at primary and secondary levels in the provision of

essential quality health services that are accessible and affordable

to the poor and vulnerable. The network expanded its scale to

recruit more privately owned hospitals, maternities, pharmacies

and patent proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) located in

urban, semi-urban and rural areas. In addition, the network

supports its providers through capacity building, commodity

supply and quality improvement initiatives, the facilitation of

medical credit by making facilities bankable and demand

generation through strategic behavioural change communication

activities. Presently, the network comprises of 340 hospitals and

clinics, 195 pharmacies and 185 PPMVs across 22 states of the

federation.

There was also an expansion in the scope of services. Presently,

the network trains and provide quality services in the areas of

Family planning (short and Long acting), maternal and child

health, including BEmONC services and safe motherhood,

Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI), Post

Abortion care services, HCT and STI management, Malaria

services, Cervical Cancer screening and Preventative therapy,

clean and safe water treatment, diarrhoea prevention and

treatment. Plans are underway to include non-communicable

diseases as well as tuberculosis into the scope of franchised

services.

In 2015, the HFN provided services to over 1.4 million Nigerians,

averted a total of 656,722 DALYs, provided 350,220 CYPs,

averted 7,813 Deaths and prevented 118,408 pregnancies. From

inception, SFH has provided a total of 263,448 IUD insertions,

64,419 implant insertions, screened over 40,000 women for

cervical cancer and treated over 1000 women using cryotherapy

through the network. These services are delivered at a cost of less

than $10 per DALYs/CYPs.

The key pillars of the network has been Quality, Access, Equity

and Cost effectiveness. SFH staff provides quarterly supportive

supervisory visits to the providers consistently to ensure the

quality of service delivery. Through our work with the

PharmAccess foundation under the African Health Markets for

Equity project, SFH implements the SafeCare Stepwise quality

improvement programme to ensure that the quality of service is

enhanced across the entire facility. This is in addition to the

annual quality audit and the bi-annual external quality audits

conducted to ensure that providers adhere to SFH's and

international quality standards. They have also been able to

drastically reduce the price of services through the provision of

affordable quality commodities at a subsidised rate through social

marketing and the provision of consumable supplies. SFH has also

conducted a number of business trainings for most of our

network members, and providers have been able to access bank

loans to improve their practices.

Twitter: @SFHNigeria Facebook: Society for Family Health, Nigeria Youtube: SFHNigeria

Society for Family Health HeadquartersPlot 8 Port Harcourt CrescentOff Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Garki, Abuja

Tel: +234 (0) 709 822 1440, 709 822 1445, 709 822 1447E-mail: info@sfhnigeria.org | Website: www.sfhnigeria.org

Quality | Access | Equity | Cost effectiveness

THE SFH PILLARS OF SFH SOCIAL FRANCHISING