Policy and Advocacy: 

Addressing health and education challenges through government action and community awareness and support

Key to strengthening the health and education sectors in Nigeria is advocating for improved social services and creating, supporting, and publicizing policies that lead to better health and education.  Although policies exist specific to social sectors, awareness about them at state and local levels - where most service delivery takes place - is low. This lack of awareness undermines the potential of policy-related initiatives. COMPASS works at state, district, and community levels to strengthen capacity for legislative action, increase awareness of policies that have been enacted to address social issues, advocate for leadership action in response to challenges, and promote community participation in using and providing services.

The overall objective is to increase political and popular support for primary health care and basic education services.  Specifically, COMPASS’ policy and advocacy activities include:

• Supporting dissemination and promoting understanding of national policies, guidelines and procedures for social sector services;
• Building the capacity of state governments, local government authorities, civil society organizations and community coalitions to collect and use reliable data for decision-making and action;
• Increasing the capacity of partner organizations, civil society organizations, and networks to plan and advocate for improved health and education policies;
• Increasing the resources allocated by state and local governments for basic education and primary health care services, as well leveraging private sector support for these services;
• Building the capacity of local media outlets to support dissemination of policies and advocate for improved services in their area of coverage.