When Nigeria signed the National Health Act into law in 2014, it created a landmark framework for expanding access to primary health care for poor and vulnerable Nigerians through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). But a strong legal mandate was not enough — translating the law into action required aligning a complex web of stakeholders across federal and state government, and overcoming deeply divergent views about how to move forward.
This case study tells the story of how a Nigerian team used the Strategic Communications Practical Guide and Strategic Communications Planning Tool to do just that. By applying the tools’ stakeholder analysis framework, the team identified key audiences, diagnosed barriers, and co-created targeted messages for community members, health facility workers and budget holders. The result: in 2018, four years after the law was signed, the Federal Ministry of Health secured the first-ever appropriation for the BHCPF — approximately USD 180 million.
The case offers a concrete example of how strategic communication, grounded in audience analysis and deliberate planning, can help turn policy commitments into funded, operational realities. It was developed as part of the Strategic Communications for UHC collaborative through the R4D-led Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN).
