Insights from Family Planning Leader, Dr. Henry Mosley, Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Henry Mosley (second from left) with TCI’s Nigeria team.

During a recent Master Training of Trainers and Coaches on TCI University in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Dr. Henry Mosley – Professor Emeritus of the Population, Family, and Reproductive Health and International Health departments at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – shared his ideas on leadership and changing mindsets. Dr. Mosley is a co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute and has more than 50 years experience working in international public health. His most recent efforts have focused on conducting strategic leadership seminars in developing countries across the globe.

Dr. Mosley shared numerous insights from his experience working in Nigeria, noting the barriers TCI’s Nigeria hub can overcome by addressing specific attitudes and cultural misconceptions about family planning. He noted that approaches need to vary across regions as a result of ethnic diversity and differing political structures specific to Nigeria. He emphasized the importance of gaining support from local political and religious leaders, highlighting the public health success when the Emirs in Northern Nigeria championed the cause of immunization programs. He noted that these leaders wield traditional, religious and political influence that can truly promote change.

WATCH: Henry Mosley speak about the TCI Master Training of Trainers and Coaches in Tanzania:

In recommending a shift in focus to satisfied users, Dr. Mosley stressed that satisfied family planning users stimulate demand that will increase supply bearing in mind TCI’s integrated evidence-based approaches related to Supply, Demand and Advocacy.  Dr. Mosley recommended all family planning interventions should be client oriented rather than method oriented. The clients should be able to choose from a variety of family planning methods.

He highlighted that the Nigerian hub, as well as TCI’s other three hubs, should focus on developing leadership at the local level for program sustainability, noting that this will enable TCI to be “owned and sustained by the people.”