Save One Million Lives

It was estimated that almost 1 million women and children die yearly, largely from preventable causes. The President of Nigeria launched the Saving One Million Lives Programme for Results (SOML PforR) Initiative in October 2012 in response to the poor health outcomes in the country, particularly for mothers and children. It represents a bold attempt by the Federal Government of Nigeria to improve maternal and child health outcomes so that they are more in keeping with the country’s level of wealth.
Instead of focusing on inputs, the PforR is designed to disburse against measurable results. States are the greatest beneficiaries of the program, receiving up to 82% of the total credit sum as incentive for improved performance under the various disbursement linked indicators (DLIs)

• To help catalyze the focus on results, the World Bank is supporting the FGON’s SOML program through a PforR operation. The SOML PforR rewards federal and state governments based on their performance in increasing utilization of maternal and child health interventions. Instead of focusing on inputs, the PforR is designed to disburse against measurable results. States are the greatest beneficiaries of the program, receiving up to 82% of the total credit sum as incentive for improved performance under the various disbursement linked indicators (DLIs).

• Increase in the combined coverage of six key SOML services;
  (a) vaccination coverage among young children (Penta3);
  (b) contraceptive prevalence rate (modern methods);
  (c) Vitamin A supplementationamong children 6 months to 5 years of age;
  (d) skilled birth attendance;
  (e) HIV counseling and testing among women attending antenatal care; and
  (f) use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) by children under-5; and
  ii. Improved quality of care index at health center level.