Ibadan, Nigeria
January 7-8, 2002

The Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER) organized a two-day Research Identification Workshop at their headquarters. The session was a collaboration between NISER and the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) and focused on "Costing of AIDS Prevention Initiatives in Nigeria: Articulating Research Priorities and Methodologies". The goal of the meeting was to highlight issues in costing of HIV prevention activities and to determine research priorities through consensus building. NISER will use the results to conduct a costing analysis on each of the four selected initiatives.

Participants included Dr. Oluwole Odutolu from (APIN), Teresa Harrison from the Center for International Development (CID), Dr. A. Abosede from the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA), researchers from NISER and several Nigerian academicians working in the area of HIV/AIDS research.

Dr. Olu Ajakaiye, Director-General of NISER, opened the meeting with a speech citing evidence of the increasing HIV/AIDS problem in sub-Saharan Africa and ways in which the epidemic can be addressed. He noted the commitment from the Nigerian government to scale-up HIV prevention and care strategies on a national level. However, a dearth of cost data requires that we obtain costs of expanding HIV prevention and care initiatives. In addition, the reality of limited resources warrants the use of cost-effectiveness analysis as a "basis for decisions on which ones to scale up." It is therefore important to use meetings such as this to exchange ideas and experiences as way to produce meaningful results.

Following Dr. Ajakaiye's introduction, APIN's in-country representative, Dr. Odutolu, spoke of this meeting as means of understanding the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. He then highlighted APIN's work over the last year which includes capacity building for HIV/Syphilis sentinel surveillance, support of community-based interventions in three states, collaboration with universities and allied institutions such as the Center for International Development who is conducting advocacy work with Nigerian policy makers.

Nigeria has many small-scale HIV/AIDS intervention projects however, information from these initiatives in Nigeria has not been widely circulated. Therefore, each expert provided an overview of an intervention and offered insight into activities and cost issues specific to Nigeria. A brief question and answer session followed each presentation. Most of the papers presented are available through CID. The following topics were presented:

• Treatment of sexually transmitted infections (Dr. A.A. Adewuyi, Dept of Sociology, OAU, Ile-Ife)
  
  
• Long distance truck driver and itinerant market women (Dr. I.O. Orubuloye, Dept. of Sociology, University of Ado-Ekiti)
  
  
• Social marketing of condoms (Dr. G. Summola, Dept. of Psychology, University of Ibadan)
  
  
• Screening blood for HIV (Dr. B.D. Omotola, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Lagos)
  
  
• AIDS Education in Schools (Prof. M.C. Asuzu, Dept. of Community Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan)
  
  
• Use of the Mass Media (Dr. S. Ndekwu, Dept. of Preventive and Social Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan)
  
  
• Commercial Sex Worker Peer Education (Prof U.C. Usiugo-Abanihe, Dept of Sociology, University of Ibadan).

The second day of the working session was used to decide which of the prevention interventions would be the focus of a costing analysis. The group of 35 voted on each intervention using several different criteria as a rationale for prioritizing: who perceived the intervention as important; who is affected by the intervention; cost of the intervention; length of the program; and, effectiveness of the strategy. For example, if the prevention strategy was management and control of STIs, the group voted on who they perceived to be the group to benefit the most (e.g., children, youth/working age population, elderly) from this initiative. Each target group was weighted based on their economic contribution to society with youth/working age people given the most weight and elderly the least.

After much discussion and voting, it was decided that the research priorities are commercial sex workers (with a social marketing component), treatment of sexually transmitted infections, AIDS education among youths, use of mass media and screening blood for HIV infection. However, there is still discussion as to whether there is a need to cost use of mass media given Dr. Ndekwu's budget proposal for developing IEC material. The presenter of each of these interventions will serve as the technical expert whose task is to convene a group of data collectors who will gather cost information from various governmental and non-governmental sources. Results will be presented in May 2002.