PPMVs Instrumental in Increasing Family Planning Uptake Among Youth in Plateau State, Nigeria

Sep 2, 2021

Contributor: Philemon Mamza Yohanna

Staff from a community-based organization coaching PPMVs on documentation data.

As the adolescent health desk officer at the Plateau State Primary Health Care Board, Mrs. Nvou Pam Davou is responsible for the coordination, planning and implementation of the adolescent and youth and sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) program in Plateau state, Nigeria. With coaching support from The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Nvou effectively integrated Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) into the program by assiduously strengthening the linkage between the PPMVs and family planning providers for AYSRH service delivery.

The involvement of PPMVs is critical, sustainable and cost-effective because they are the providers of choice of youth. In addition, ensuring an improved referral system with health facilities for the contraceptive methods they cannot provide creates more method choice for youth. Nvou explains what motivated her to integrate PPMVs:

Mrs. Nvou Pam Davou is the Adolescent Health Development Officer for the Plateau State Primary Health Care Board.

The involvement of PPMVs in improving AYSRH services and their linkage to facilities is quite important as it not only reduces bias but emboldens the youth in assessing services beyond the PPMVs at facility level and gives relevance to the PPMVs as he/she sees self as contributing to comprehensive health care which reduces unwanted outcomes for the youth at the end. The increase in AY uptake is vivid as shown on PPMV data as of June 2021.”

There has been a significant increase of 867% in client uptake of short-acting reversible contraceptives from 183 to 1,769 adolescents ages 15-19 and 171% from 987 to 2,674 for youth 20-24 years-old between July 2020 to June 2021 following the integration of 64 PPMVs into the AYSRH program in Plateau state.

Adolescent and youth uptake of contraceptive methods via PPMVs.

TCI’s comprehensive approach to AYSRH is working because it engages existing community structures. The PPMVs were mapped by Plateau state with TCI support, linked to civil society organizations and adolescent and youth-friendly supported facilities, and then coached on how to counsel and give referrals to the facilities.