This research project commenced in 2023 with funds from BMGF. The study is aimed at assessing the context and predictors of digital readiness in Edo State and providing insights into programmatic interventions that can reduce barriers, accelerate digital adoption, and deliver socioeconomic benefits to the government and the people. The project collected data from over 2,800 at baseline and 1,600 participants at endline.

It conducted multi-level, multi-stakeholder engagement to ensure that evidence from the baseline was used to design interventions that improved digital solutions and inclusivity in Edo state.

The SBSR unit collaborates with JPAL to implement a process evaluation of the ongoing randomized control trial (RCT) of the Life Skill (LS) component in Katsina State.

This process monitoring aims to understand the fidelity of the implementation models and document challenges and lessons to help interpret the results. The project commenced in 2024 and will terminate by the end of first quarter 2025.

It has engaged over 160 stakeholder (including mentors, principals, community leaders, policy and decision makers, and adolescent boys and girls) in different schools and communities to generate useful insights and make recommendations to enhance the implementation and outcomes of the LS intervention models.

The Nigeria Gender Norms Research is a multi-year project supported by BMGF. The project is utilizing a multi-pronged approach to measure key norms influencing behaviour and outcomes for young adolescents (10-14-year-olds) across twelve States and the Federal Capital Territory.

This three-year project is a community randomized control trial to inform the design of effective interventions for shifting social norms in Nigeria. The project is in its early phase of implementation, scoping and engaging multi-stakeholders working around key thematic areas including adolescent sexual reproductive health, women economic empowerment, gender-based violence, child early and forced marriage, and human papilloma virus vaccination.

In addition, the project is working with the National Population Commission to conduct a household listing in the targeted states, in preparation for a household survey to explore contextual social norms. We hope that the project will work with diverse reference groups to identify, measure and shift gender norms influencing the health and socio-economic outcomes of very young adolescent girls and boys in Nigeria.

It will utilize community randomize control trials to interventions to shift harmful gender norms within affected communities. Lessons from this research will inform policy and programs related to early adolescents.

This project was supported by BMGF and implemented Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and national level, from 2023 to 2024. It utilized mixed methods and engaged over 150 stakeholders across the project states to explore the context of women’s health advocacy and collective action and provided evidence around barriers and models of women’s health joint advocacy and collective action in Nigeria.

It developed a stakeholder directory (dashboard) that serves as a veritable for identifying and reaching the stakeholders (individuals and organizations) working around women’s health advocacy in the respective states. Building on the evidence thereof, the project designed a hybrid model of women’s health joint advocacy, aligning with the Sector Wide Approach to health programming (SWAp) of the New Health Sector Renewal Investment Program in Nigeria.

The evidence from this research is currently supporting investors and programmers in shaping the SWAp agenda of Nigeria’s health sector especially health promotion, social accountability and collective action.

From 2022 to 2024, our SBSR explored the context and behavioural drivers of learning poverty on “At-Risk Out of School Children/At-Risk Children” who consequently drop out as well as enablers and barriers for uptake of interventions.

This research work did not only evaluate the in-school learning environment, but mapped existing programs /policies to explore gaps and opportunities for strengthening access/ delivery of services.