The SOML Initiative was launched by the President of Nigeria in October 2012 in response to the poor health outcomes in the country, particularly for mothers and children. It is estimated that almost 1 million women and children die yearly, largely from preventable causes. SOML represents a bold attempt to improve maternal and child health outcomes so that they are more in keeping with the country’s level of wealth; and focuses on six important aspects (pillars) of maternal newborn and child health (MNCH) that can save lives.
The pillars are:
(1) Improving Maternal, Newborn and Child Health;
(2) Improving routine immunization coverage and achieving polio eradication;
(3) Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV;
(4) Scaling up access to essential medicines and commodities;
(5) Malaria control;
(6) Improving child nutrition
The Program for Results (PforR) is a performance based program of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGON) assisted by the World Bank. It supports the Government’s existing Saving One Million Lives (SOML) initiative by providing incentives based on achievement of results (health outcomes) and helping to drive institutional processes needed to achieve them. The Program-for-Results (PforR) is not a typical World Bank project which focuses on inputs and activities for procurement using World Bank rules and procedures. Rather, it uses country systems and processes, giving health managers substantial autonomy in managing and producing health results.
The Program which seeks to catalyze change in the way health business is done by focusing on results and governance will be financed by a $500million International Development Association (IDA) credit to the Federal Republic of Nigeria over a period of 4 years. The resources are then disbursed to the states based on performance. States are the greatest beneficiaries of the program, receiving up to82% of the total credit sum as incentive for improved performance under the various disbursement linked indicators (DLIs). States get rewarded for improvements in performance from their own baseline. States in each geopolitical zone are also ranked according to their performance and the best performing state, ‘zonal champion’ receives addition.
