In January 2017, USAID’s Health Finance and Governance project organized evidence synthesis workshops for Nigeria’s Cross River and Rivers states. The workshops were intended to pull together the findings from several health financing core diagnostic analyses conducted to assess the health financing landscape. The core diagnostics discussed included:

• A health financing situational analysis to clarify the state’s context for all stakeholders involved;
• A fiscal space assessment to identify the level of state and federal resources available (and required) for state health financing strategies;
• A political economy/governance assessment to identify key stakeholders, institutions, and their capacities for the development and implementation of a health financing strategy;
• A public sector financial management analysis to assess the capability, accountability, and responsiveness of health related agencies; and
• Resource tracking.

To understand the implications of the core diagnostics for the design and implementation of state health insurance schemes, it was necessary to pull the findings together into a communique of action.

Participants at the Health Financing Core Diagnostics Workshop in Cross River State, January 2017.

The meetings provided a space for state actors and policymakers at the national and state levels to question and dialogue on the findings, before forging a consensus on feasible recommendations for action. Representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Budget Economic Planning, Ministry of Finance State Ministry, State House of Assembly, State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the Labor Union attended.