Commentary : accelerating the quest for integrated and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in Nigeria

Few interventions by NGOs or government adequately respond to the many demand-side barriers to universal access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH), especially extreme poverty among rural women, and such practices as child marriage, and women’s need for husbands’ permission to seek emergency obstetric care. A yawning gap exists between policies and their implementation through high-quality, large-scale programmes and services, as well as huge regional and rural–urban disparities in reproductive health services. The SRH status of women and girls in rural northern Nigeria is among the worst in the world