NCDC unveiled 5-year strategic, implementation plan

NCDC unveiled 5-year strategic, implementation plan

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has unveiled its five-year strategic and implementation plan for 2023–2027, titled “Vision to Action.” The plan aims to advance the impact of health security interventions in Nigeria by focusing on strategic, ambitious, and working with speed and scale (SASS) principles.

The Director-General of the agency, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, said the unveiled manifesto manifested the agency’s mandate of advancing the impact of health security interventions in the country based on the Strategic, Ambitious, Working with Speed and Scale (SASS) mantra.

He said that the plan aligned with the presidential and ministerial agendas for health.

He added that the 2023–2027 plan included a digital transformation agenda complemented by aspirations for high-quality, cross-cutting public health informatics.

He said “The strategic plan seeks to sustain the strong vision of the NCDC, underpinned by clearly defined goals, supported by well-articulated implementation and delivery plans.

“Exactly six years ago, the NCDC inaugurated its first strategy with the theme “Idea to Reality”, which outlined a roadmap for the agency to achieve its vision and mission.

“In 2022, we conducted an end-term review of the implementation of the 2017–2022 strategy to identify successes, challenges, and learnings to develop the next five-year strategic plan.”

The NCDC boss said that the change in strategy reflected the agency’s priority of strengthening subnational health security in partnership with the state and local governments to ensure better coordination in the newly created Subnational Support Department.

He explained that the strategy would also equip the Department of Planning, Research, and Statistics with the tools and training to advance monitoring, evaluation, and learning within the agency, in line with best practices.

Adetifa said, “The document detailing the strategic and implementation plan was launched by the NCDC top management with other key stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

“NCDC’s vision remains a healthier and safer Nigeria through the prevention and control of diseases of public health importance.

“The vision cascades into a mission statement, further broken down into seven key strategic goals, 41 objectives, and 225 corresponding activities with defined outcomes for the next five years.

“Furthermore, a performance management structure has been instituted to oversee and coordinate the execution of various initiatives to assess NCDC’s progress towards achieving its strategic goals.”

He said that the framework would prioritise and align efforts across the agency’s departments and divisions to enable development partners to key in for collaboration.

He also said it would protect the health of Nigerians against emerging public health threats and evolving challenges.