Nigeria urged to take full ownership of SARMAAN Project to boost child survival

Health experts and government officials in Nigeria have called for stronger national ownership of the Safety and Antimicrobial Resistance of Mass Administration of Azithromycin Among Children 1–59 Months (SARMAAN) project to improve child survival rates.

The appeal was made at a high-level stakeholder roundtable following recommendations from the National Child Health Technical Working Group (NCH TWG) and the Director of the Family Health Department at the Federal Ministry of Health.

The meeting aimed to align institutions, clarify governance structures, and advance the integration of SARMAAN II into Nigeria’s Child Survival Action Plan.

John Ovuoraye, chair of the SARMAAN II steering committee and director/head of the Family Health Department, emphasized that safeguarding the lives of Nigerian children must remain a national priority.

“Survival is the most fundamental right of Nigerian children. For the progressive inclusion of SARMAAN II into Nigeria’s Child Survival Action Plan, we must co-create and implement solutions together,” Ovuoraye explained.

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He stressed that discussions around the project must be outcome-oriented and aligned with existing government coordination structures, while highlighting the need for adjustments within SARMAAN’s governance framework to ensure inclusive engagement and reinforce collective institutional ownership among national stakeholders.

“Research alone cannot translate into policy. All partners and technical teams must work together, and everyone in this room must ensure we succeed as a country,” he added.

There was a consensus around the room that Nigeria must increasingly lead the narrative and drive informed government decision-making on child survival interventions. The SARMAAN II project represents Nigeria’s contribution to the regional Resiliency through Azithromycin for Children (REACH) Network and is designed to generate robust national evidence on the effectiveness of Azithromycin Mass Drug Administration (MDA) in reducing under-five mortality while monitoring antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and ensuring safety.

According to Oliver Ezechi, the principal investigator of the SARMAAN project, the SARMAAN project represents Nigeria’s involvement in the REACH Network, an African led initiative with Ministries of Health and international partners focused on reducing child mortality through evidence-based Azithromycin (AZM) Mass Drug Administration (MDA) in high mortality settings.

Giving an overview progess report on SARMAAN II, Senior Project Manager, Solina, Ijeoma Mmirikwe shared that over 13 million unique children have been reached from 2024-2026;Nineteen rounds of Mass Drug Administration (MDA) successfully implemented across Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, and Sokoto states; Over 5.7 million bottles of Azithromycin have been distributed across the ten states and so far no record of any serious adverse events has been reported during implementation.

Speaking at the meeting, Ikechukwu Ofuani, project lead of the SARMAAN Advocacy Project Team, introduced the advocacy consortium supporting national ownership, policy integration, communications, and knowledge management for the initiative.

According to Ofuani, the advocacy effort focuses on ensuring government ownership of the intervention, integrating SARMAAN into Nigeria’s Child Survival Action Plan, securing sustainable domestic financing, and amplifying public awareness and policy engagement.

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The consortium is led by Policy Vault Africa, with communications support from Saldrey Communications Limited and Big Cabal Media. The SARMAAN programme builds on strong international evidence from Niger, Tanzania and Malawi where similar Azithromycin interventions demonstrated up to a 13.8 percent reduction in child mortality.

The Nigerian implementation adapts this proven approach to the local context while generating country-specific evidence and strengthening state and community ownership.