Together with implementation partners the Society for Family Health, the SAQIP project of PACT Nigeria and Evidence for Action Mamaye, IDEAS has worked to support the use of data for decision making through six-monthly data driven learning workshops and routine facility-based data quality workshops. Further, IDEAS has conducted research on the effectiveness of the partnership, on the provision of quality maternal and newborn health care,  measurement methods, and studied the sustainability of innovations, including the Village Health Worker Scheme in Gombe State.

Discussing emerging findings with partners has always been a priority for IDEAS, including with members of the community. But the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to a lot of planned engagement: the Gombe partnership had to rethink how opportunities for vital shared learning could still take place in a meaningful way.

And so on the 14^th and 15^th of July the IDEAS team convened a virtual workshop. More than 30 participants from implementing partners and the funder received a package of pre-recorded presentations in advance, along with some important pre-reads, and then logged on for a meeting that could have been interrupted at any time due to the unreliable internet connections. But it didn’t, the two days ran smoothly, the chair of the workshops, the Executive Secretary of the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Abdulrahman, was loud and clear and discussions were as lively as ever.

Discussion focused around six areas of research, including:

• Coverage and quality of essential MNH care
• Quality of routine data
• Use of data for decision making
• Respectful maternity care
• Quality of clinical childbirth care
• Sustainability of maternal and newborn health innovations

Further results from Gombe will be published in the near future and both IDEAS and its partners in Nigeria are looking to continue discussions on how to best share and make use of the findings for improved maternal and newborn health in Gombe State and beyond.