By Lilian Okoro
Stakeholders in child health, research, and public policy are calling for the sustainability and institutionalisation of the Safety and Antimicrobial Resistance of Mass Administration of Azithromycin Among Children (SARMAAN) Project as a national priority for child survival.
Advocating for sustainability, they called for stronger policy integration, increased domestic financing, incorporation into state and national health plans, and continued stakeholder engagement to support long-term impact.
They made the call in a statement as Nigeria joins the rest of the continent in commemorating the Day of the African Child, observed annually on June 16.
The Day of the African Child serves as a reminder of Africa’s collective responsibility to protect the rights, health, and future of its children.
The 2026 commemoration presents an opportunity to reflect not only on the challenges facing children across the continent but also on proven interventions capable of saving lives and improving health outcomes.
In Nigeria, the SARMAAN Project has emerged as one of the country’s most significant child survival initiatives, generating evidence on the safe administration of Azithromycin.
The project also supports efforts to reduce preventable illnesses and deaths among children under five years of age.
The project is implemented through a partnership involving the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), consortium of implementers, government institutions, development partners, advocacy and communication partners and state-level stakeholders.
It has already reached over 16 million children across 11 participating northern states.
The success of SARMAAN has demonstrated the potential of evidence-based interventions to contribute to improved child health outcomes.
However, stakeholders warn that sustaining these gains will require deliberate action to integrate lessons learned, strengthen domestic ownership, and embed child survival interventions within existing health systems and policies.
Ikechukwu Ofuani, Project Lead, SARMAAN Advocacy Project Team, stated that the SARMAAN Project had demonstrated how evidence-based interventions could significantly contribute to reducing preventable childhood illnesses and deaths among children under five years of age.
He said that SARMAAN had evolved beyond a standalone project and should now be recognised as a strategic child survival intervention with national relevance.
According to Ofuani, institutionalising SARMAAN will help safeguard the gains already recorded while creating opportunities to expand its impact and embed its approach within Nigeria’s health system for the long-term benefit of children.
He emphasised that government and institutional ownership must define the next phase of the programme, ensuring that its successes are sustained beyond the lifecycle of donor support.
Demilade Oseteku, Principal, SCIDaR – Solina Centre for International Development and Research, emphasised the importance of institutionalising SARMAAN as a national child survival priority.
Oseteku stated that the project had demonstrated a practical, scalable, and high-impact pathway for improving child survival outcomes in Nigeria, particularly in underserved and hard-to-reach communities.
According to Oseteku, SARMAAN extends beyond the administration of medicine to strengthening the critical systems required to consistently reach vulnerable children.
These include microplanning, supply chain coordination, community engagement, implementation monitoring, data-driven decision-making, and accountability mechanisms across national and sub-national levels.
According to him, at a time when Nigeria continues to face preventable child deaths from malaria and other childhood illnesses, SARMAAN provides a tested and evidence-based platform capable of addressing persistent equity gaps and ensuring that lifesaving interventions reach the children who need them most.
Highlighting the impact of the intervention at the state level, Dr Abubakar Kanya, Director of Public Health (DPH), Jigawa, described SARMAAN as a proven child survival intervention that has demonstrated both effectiveness and strong community ownership.
According to him, Jigawa has successfully completed three rounds of Mass Drug Administration (MDA) under the SARMAAN programme, consistently achieving the project’s target coverage of 90 percent.
He noted that the implementation has been met with strong community acceptance, with caregivers across participating communities providing positive feedback and testimonials on the benefits of the intervention.
Also, Dr Abdulrahman Shuaibu, Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, commented.
He affirmed that the experience of implementing SARMAAN in Gombe State had demonstrated why the intervention deserved long-term institutional support and integration into Nigeria’s child survival agenda.
He said one of the strongest indicators of the programme’s success had been the remarkable level of community acceptance recorded across participating communities, with no reported resistance throughout implementation.
He noted that this level of receptiveness is particularly significant given that public health interventions often encounter varying degrees of hesitation or resistance at the community level.
“The SARMAAN project has also demonstrated the value of collaboration between researchers, policymakers, health workers, traditional institutions, development partners, and communities in advancing child health priorities”.
The statement noted that the Day of the African Child was particularly significant because it highlighted the importance of investing in interventions that directly improved the lives of children.
“For Nigeria, sustaining the momentum created by SARMAAN aligns with broader national commitments to reducing child mortality, strengthening primary healthcare systems, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals related to child health and wellbeing’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SARMAAN Project, part of the regional REACH (Resiliency through Azithromycin in Children) Network, is a child survival evidence-based programme designed to reduce under-five mortality in high-burden states in Nigeria.
It implements Mass Drug Administration (MDA) of azithromycin through a government-led, multi-partner approach to ensure scalability, sustainability, and system strengthening.(NAN)www.nannews.ng
Edited by Vivian Ihechu
