By Lawani mikairu

Bless-me Ajani, a public health expert and thought leader with over a decade of experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), is emerging as one of the most influential voices in shaping Nigeria’s family planning future.
With a career spanning global consultancies and national policy engagement, she has consistently advanced solutions that respond to the realities of young people, women, and underserved communities. She is widely regarded as one of the driving forces behind Nigeria’s bold FP2030 family planning commitment.
Her career reflects a blend of local impact and global influence. Early in her journey, she worked with the Johns Hopkins Centre for Communication Programs on the NURHI 2 project, one of Nigeria’s largest family planning interventions. There, she led the Life Planning for Adolescents and Youth project and helped expand access to contraception in urban slum communities, contributing to measurable increases in contraceptive uptake in Lagos State.
Her influence grew when she became the first Nigerian Youth Focal Point for the FP2020 Partnership, a landmark appointment that positioned young people at the center of global and national family planning discussions.
In this role, Ajani trained hundreds of youth advocates across Nigeria, equipping them with skills to engage policymakers and demand youth-responsive services. Her leadership ensured that Nigeria’s FP2030 commitment was developed through one of the country’s most inclusive and participatory consultation processes, engaging young people across all states and elevating their voices in national policymaking.
The FP2030 commitment, which seeks to increase Nigeria’s modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) to 27 percent by 2030, embodies principles she has long championed: inclusivity, accountability, and equity. Unlike FP2020, the new commitment was shaped through national and subnational consultations involving government, donors, civil society, academia, the private sector, and youth.
“This is a bold and strategic vision,” Ajani explains. “If implemented well, it has the power to reduce teenage pregnancies, keep girls in school, lower maternal deaths, and improve national development outcomes.”
Her advocacy has also helped secure structural recognition of youth in policy implementation. Today, youth-led organizations are formal members of national and state reproductive health technical working groups, actively shaping accountability mechanisms.
“Young people are no longer just beneficiaries. They are accountability partners and advocates shaping Nigeria’s reproductive health future, she noted.”
Mentorship is another hallmark of her career. She has guided early-career professionals across Africa, amplifying the voices of women and young leaders in policy spaces.
Many of her mentees now hold leadership roles in advocacy and health programming, multiplying her impact across the continent.
On the global stage, Ajani has served as an SRHR Advisor at the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, conducting applied research and policy advisory work across low- and middle-income countries.
She has collaborated with national governments, NGOs, and international partners—including WHO, UNICEF, USAID and FP2020—to inform adolescent health policy, strengthen family planning programs, and promote equity-driven strategies across Africa.
Her thought leadership has been recognised at major international forums. She has spoken at World Health Assembly side events, the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), Women Deliver, and the Nigeria Family Planning Conference.
At these platforms, her insights on equity, youth engagement, reproductive health and family planning have influenced both national and international policy and donor agendas.
Despite progress, challenges remain, particularly with donor fatigue. USAID’s recent withdrawal from direct family planning funding has left a critical gap that Nigeria must urgently address. For Ajani, the way forward lies in increased domestic financing and innovative resource mobilisation.
She highlights states such as Ogun, Gombe, Lagos, Delta, and Adamawa, which have begun allocating funds for family planning commodities. She also points to Niger and Ondo States, where family planning has been integrated into state health insurance schemes, as models of sustainable approaches to reducing donor dependence.
“Family planning is not just a health intervention,” she insists. “It is a development imperative that reduces poverty, empowers young people, and strengthens national productivity. Nigeria must own this agenda, even in the absence of donor funding.”
Currently pursuing her Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) degree in Health Services Management and Policy in the United States, Ajani remains deeply committed to amplifying women’s and youth voices in policy spaces.
She sees Nigeria’s FP2030 commitment not just as a government pledge, but as a collective promise that must be delivered for the country’s most vulnerable populations.
Her work, both in Nigeria and globally, underscores her belief in equity, systems change, and evidence-based practice. This blend of passion and expertise has made Bless-me Ajani a respected voice in the global movement for reproductive health and rights.