Joshua Elaigwu (he, him, his) is a recognized health financing expert with over 10 years of progressive experience implementing sustainable health financing for sexual and reproductive health rights programs in Nigeria.
Joshua is a health financing program officer for the primary health care (PHC) financing project at Results for Development (R4D) in Nigeria. He works with a group of R4D’s health financing experts to institutionalize a country-specific strategic purchasing plan, strengthen PHC public financial management systems, and enhance the capacity of federal agencies responsible for the implementation of the basic healthcare provision fund (BHCPF) to provide oversight and assess project performance and resource tracking. He contributes to strategy development, implementation, monitoring and evaluating program performance, proposal writing and knowledge sharing.
In his work on the Frequent Assessments and Systems Tools for Resilience (FASTR) initiative in Nigeria, Joshua facilitated a collaborative co-creation process that centered on stakeholder engagement to contextualize FASTR in Nigeria. The group adapted FASTR approaches and tools to align with government priorities for improved data use practices to enhance RMNCAEH+N outcomes, successfully established new partnerships and finalized a comprehensive baseline data use landscape. Joshua also facilitated the inaugural analytical lab/workshop series focused on Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) and Health Facility survey implementation and capacity strengthening.
Prior to joining R4D, Joshua spent six years working to protect Nigeria’s poor and most vulnerable populations through the design of a social health insurance scheme and by increasing government funding for sexual and reproductive health and rights.
He also contributed to the design and implementation of the Kaduna State Health Insurance Scheme which has provided access to affordable healthcare services and protected beneficiaries from high medical costs. He also led the identification of poor and vulnerable populations in Kaduna and Jigawa states, some of which are being covered by the BHCPF program. Joshua contributed to the creation of a budget line for family planning in Jigawa state which has recorded year-over-year increases in the allocation and release of funds to bridge the gap in access to family planning services for women.
Joshua holds a master’s degree in public health policy from the University of Suffolk, UK and a master’s degree in health economics from Bayero University Kano. He earned a B.Sc. in physiology from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is fluent in English.
Publications:
