…..AFRIHEALTH Emerges SDG 3 Champion of the Year, as Dr. Adirieje Gets a Lifetime Achievement Award
CSR REPORTERS, the organizing body for the annual CSR Reporters’ Nonprofit Roundtable and Excellence Award has announced that Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) has been voted as the winner of the prestigious 2022 UN-SDG GOAL 3: Good Health and Wellbeing Champion of the Year award. Announcing the award in Abuja, the CSR Reporters also indicated that AHOA’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje shall be conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award. These were communicated to AHOA and Adirieje in letters signed on the 6th of May, 2023 by Eche Munonye, the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, and Bukola Olaosebikan Deputy Editor/Head of the Awards Committee, disclosing that, AHOA, Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje won the awards of the year meritoriously. Both awards shall be formally presented on the 6th of July 2023, at the Nigerian National Merit Award House, Abuja, Nigeria.
The Awards program honors non-governmental organizations, leaders, funders, and volunteers from throughout Nigeria that demonstrate extraordinary effort, innovation, leadership, and excellence in providing service to humanity. CSR Reporters’ Nonprofit Excellence. The awards do not only recognize prominent international NGOs, but also the smaller, lesser-known NGOs in remote areas, whose exemplary service and success may have gone unnoticed and unappreciated on the national stage.
Nominations were received from various individuals and organizations with knowledge of the nominee- organization and the work being done. Thereafter, nominations were reviewed by a panel of judges composed of experts drawn from both international and local NGOs, media and intergovernmental organizations.
“Dear Sir, you were selected for receipt of this award because of your work in building a more sustainable Nigerian society through dedication to social impact initiatives.”, said the award letter to Dr. Adirieje. With the theme: “Driving Nonprofit Performance and Innovation Through Effective Leadership”, the organizers stated that “this discourse will (motivate) nonprofit leaders think conceptually about performance-measurement systems, …examine the rationale behind performance measurement and how to align your organization’s mission, strategy, and performance; (thereby) developing a culture of learning and innovation at your NGO.”
In the letter of award notice to Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) as the “SDG GOAL 3: Good Health and Wellbeing – Champion of the Year Award”, the CSR Reporters said that AHOA “was selected for receipt of the award based on your commitment to the achievement of UN-SDGs (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) … The judges also considered the transparency and inclusiveness with which you carry out your operations.” Goal 3 target which is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages.
Reactions have trailed the announcement of these Awards to AHOA and her CEO, some of which are shared below.
Linus Onah-Igwe of the Association of Grassroots Counsellors on Health and Development (Cross River State, Nigeria) commented that “Dr Adirieje really deserves this honour and even more. Congrats in advance sir.” “Congratulations Dr you deserve it and it was long overdue” was the response of Lindokuhle Sibiya of Action against NCDs, Eswatini, Southern Africa; while Okorie Agwu Ama of the National Programme for Food Security (Nigeria) thundered “A very big congratulations to you my big brother and Oga. May God continually lift u up, Amen”
Dr. Bamgboye Morakinyo Afolabi, Chief Medical Director of the Health, Environment and Development Foundation (Nigeria) wrote to AHOA: “Big Congratulations. I am so proud of you and all your achievements.”, while Mrs. Beatrice Eluaka, an Independent Consultant Nutritionist from Nigeria wrote: “Hearty Congratulations Dr. Adirieje. More feathers to your cap!”; and Baroness Frances Ihuoma Bekey of the Women Empowerment Self-help and Social Development Initiative (Nigeria) offered “Congratulations Doc for this well-deserved honour.” In her reaction, Mrs. Anita Adeyemi of the Women in Renewable Energy Association (Nigeria) wrote: “Congratulations Dr Adirieje. Thanks for your dedicated service to the advancement of mankind”, while Rodgers Gibson Kaunda of the Bwalo Initiative, Malawi offered “Congrats to you Dr for noble tasks”; just as Elder Effiong of COHDAT, Nigeria wrote “Wao! I just saw this. You deserve it Sir. Congratulations! More grease to your elbows”.
Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA) is a community-focused civil society organizations (CSOs) international Movement/Network Coalition and Think-tank deeply engaged in promoting policies, practices, programmes and interventions that enhance productivity, accountability, transparency and civil society’s coordination/contributions in Society Welfare/Social Safety nets, Development Work/Sustainable Development, Health; and in educational, literary, scientific, social, development, cultural, sporting, and charitable intervention(s)/purpose(s). AHOA’s mandate includes Building an inclusive and broad movement for Health and Sustainable Development; Creating avenues to influence the design and implementation of policies, practices, programmes and interventions; Promoting coordination, information exchange and harmonization among the civil society and stakeholder groups across the world; and Promoting citizen involvement, leadership and accountability mechanisms in the implementation of respective interventions.
AHOA has a global membership/partnership of over 1,700 (One Thousand, Seven Hundred) organizations mainly from the global South viz Africa: 1578; Asia: 79; The Americas: 17; Europe: 16; Caribbean, Australia, Pacific, Oceania (CAPO): 13. AHOA promotes the ‘One Health’ paradigm where Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. AHOA uses partnership/collaboration, advocacy, research/evidence generation, capacity development, outreaches, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as strategies. AHOA’s activities/interventions are for the benefit of rural and poor urban dwellers, marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged populations of women, children, adolescents, persons with disability, persons in conflict-affected areas, the poor, elderly, rural, disadvantaged and vulnerable persons, orphans and the elderly.
The AHOA CSOs Movement/Network Coalition and Think-tank works to explore the nexus between and within the following sectors:
- Health – including UHC, PHC, Reproductive Health, PHC, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), Malaria, NCDs, NTDs, Vaccines/Immunization and COVID-19;
- Energy and Environment – including biodiversity, environment, ecosystems, renewable energy, energy efficiency, conservation and climate change (BEEREEECCC);
- Nutrition/micronutrients and Food Security;
- Gender, Democracy, Good Governance, Peace, Human Security and Human Rights; and
- Sustainable Development across regions, populations, communities and generations
AHOA partners with the Society for Conservation and Sustainability of Energy and Environment in Nigeria (SOCSEEN). AHOA has members/local Chapters in Nigeria’s 36 States and Federal Capital Abuja, National Chapters in some countries, sub-regional Chapters in North Africa, West and Central Africa, East and Southern Africa; and in America, Asia, Caribbean, Europe and Oceania regions. AHOA has a Consultative Status at the United Nations ECOSOC; and an Accredited Observer status at the UNEP/United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA).
Dr. Uzodinma Adirieje is an independent Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Consultant, Clinician, Certified Management Trainer/Facilitator; Climate Change, Energy and Biodiversity Advocate, Certified Management Consultant, Health Economist, and PMERLT (Project/Programme Planning/Management, M&E, Research and Learning/Training) Expert; Conference Organizer, Columnist/Writer, Activist, CEO of Afrihealth Optonet Association (AHOA), Global Coordinator of the ‘Disability, Elderly, Women, Vulnerable and Youth (DEWVY) Project of AHOA, Initiator of the After50 Group Club, and President of the Society for Conservation and Sustainability of Energy and Environment in Nigeria (SOCSEEN). He’s a pioneer Fellow and National President of the Nigeria Association of Evaluators (2019-2022); Consultant that drafted Nigeria’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Policy which was approved by the Nigerian Government; and produced Nigeria’s SDG-3/Health Evaluation synthesis.
Dr. Adirieje’s a key participant in Nigeria’s national evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals 3 & 4; an active participant in the African Evaluation Association and a recipient of the 2022 Recognition Award from the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation for his “enduring commitment and valuable contributions”.
He holds a ‘Certificate of Participation’ from the 7th International Conference on National Evaluation Capacities (NEC 2022) with the theme ‘Resilient National Evaluation Systems for Sustainable Development’ held at the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) in Turin, Italy, 25-28 October 2022; and organized by the UNDP in collaboration with the Global Evaluation Initiative (GEI). In 2022, Dr. Adirieje was one of 8 Africans selected by qualification to participate in the six-week maiden Boot Camp of the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE). Uzodinma Adirieje was the Chairperson of Nigeria’s National World Malaria Day Committee in 2019; Conference Manager of the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in 2005, and Projects Coordinator of the Nigeria National Health Conferences in 2006 and 2009 respectively.
Uzodinma was the Technical Consultant/Adviser to the Hon. Minister of State I, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Conference Coordinator for the 2nd GlobalPOWER Women Network Africa High-Level Meeting (HLM) Abuja 2013, organized by the Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the African Union and with support of UNAIDS; 27-28 June 2013. He’s a Member of, the Technical Committee Meeting on Draft Standards for Renewable Energy in Nigeria. Dr. Adirieje participated in the 2018 African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) in Nairobi and the 2018 meetings/activities of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
During 2017-2018, Adirieje was Project Director of the vastly media-reported ‘Sustainable Citizen Participation (SCP) in Nigeria’s Niger Delta’ Project funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), which addressed many Energy, Environment and SDGs challenges across 81 communities/LGAs in 9 States Niger Delta. Chairman, Nigeria Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (NiPBES) since 2019. He’s a Member of the National Technical Working Group on M&E; a member of the National Core Working Group on 2020 Voluntary National Review (CWG-VNR), and Chairman of Civil Society Response for Nigeria’s 2020 VNR.
Dr. Uzo’ (as he’s fondly called) is also the President of the Society for Conservation and Sustainability of Energy and Environment in Nigeria (SOCSEEN) and Global Coordinator of the Civil Society Actions for Climate Change, Energy and Biodiversity (CSA4CEB).
He is a ‘One Health’ Champion and Reproductive Health Advocate, Development Worker, Health and Community Systems Strengthening Specialist, and Community leader. Uzodinma has over twenty years of proven competencies in managing/supporting and evaluating projects, policies, programmes and interventions that enhance results/productivity, accountability, inclusivity and transparency in Society Welfare/Social Safety nets, Development Work, Sustainable Development/Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Health; using Partnerships/Collaborations, Advocacy, Research/Evidence, Capacity/Organizational Development, Community Engagements, and Outreach interventions.
He is the national chairman of the Civil Society Organizations Strategy Group on the SDGs (CSOSG-SDGs) in Nigeria. Dr. Adirieje was Co-Principal Consultant that drafted Nigeria’s Monitoring and Evaluation Policy recently approved by the Nigerian Government. He was the consultant that produced Nigeria’s SDG-3/Health Evaluation synthesis; and a key participant in Nigeria’s national evaluation of SDGs 3 and 4. He is currently the national consultant for the production of the Inclusive Data Charter Action Plan (IDC-AP) for Nigeria, in line with United Nations SDG-17.
Uzodinma Adirieje is an active participant in the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA) and recipient of 2022 Recognition Award from the International Organization for Cooperation in Evaluation (IOCE) for his “enduring commitment and valuable contributions”. Uzodinma was the National Team Supervisor and Data Collection Team Leader (data collector, data analyst, and data quality assessment) of the Global Fund/NMEP/ISA’s Malaria Matchbox Nigeria Project 2020-2021 in conflict-ridden Northeastern Nigeria.
He’s a Member of Nigeria’s National Technical Working Group (TWG) on M&E. Dr. Adirieje is a gender activist, and author of the ‘Female Circumcision (Female Genital Mutilation): 40 Dangerous Effects Parents and Relations Must Know (publication now cataloged at the Media/Materials Clearinghouse of the Johns Hopkins University, USA, for worldwide distribution, as M/MC ID#: PL NGA 318)’. He’s successfully conceptualized/planned and managed scores of local and international conferences, workshops, pieces of training, seminars, symposia, research, advocacy, health and development programmes, projects, and activities/interventions.