Health

OSIWA response to the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria

Published

4 years ago

2020/05/22

To provide responses to challenges faced in the fight against COVID-19 and to support partners in filling up the existing gaps, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa, OSIWA, has engaged Civil society groups, funding organisations and media groups across the country.

In a document made availble to NewsWireNGR, OSIWA Nigeria country manager; Udo Jude Ilo, said over four hundred thousand dollars have been disbursed so far for COVID-19 related support to different organisations as grants.

Highlighting the organisation’s interventions in response to Nigeria’s fight against COVID-19, Ilo listed Strategic Communication to Rural and Fringe areas, Support for human rights monitoring and documentation, Special communication and access support for persons living with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, as well as engaging Policies and Promoting Collaboration.

He said the final intervention will be to support partners in repurposing their existing grants to provide COVID-19 response within their target communities and their beneficiaries taking cognisance of the four intervention areas which the Foundation is focused on.

According to the country manager, these interventions are necessary because the evolving nature of the environment requires that OSIWA Nigeria adopts an organic approach to COVID-19 response through continued engagements with partners who are working directly on the field.

Moving forward, OSIWA says the next phase of interventions will be determined by identifying what the immediate needs of partners are and finding ways to support those needs. “We see a need to also provide direct support to Nigeria government. We are now exploring the option of providing direct support to three States in the country to ease the management and movement of patients.”

OSIWA is also engaging Policies and Promoting Collaboration.

“With the media, we convened a meeting of key media organisations to interrogate the peculiar challenges the media is facing under the covid pandemic and the ways to better highlight the plight of citizens and other fundamental issues arising from the pandemic” the document made available to NewsWireNGR reads in parts.

Mr Ilo added that through this engagement, “we are able to tailor our support to media organisations to improve reportage on covid-19 from a more substantive human angle”.

According to OSIWA, the final intervention will be to support partners in repurposing their existing grants to provide COVID-19 response within their target communities and their beneficiaries taking cognisance of the four intervention areas which the Foundation is focused on.