Building a Fairer Health Response: Mercy Egemba’s Role in Nigeria’s Groundbreaking Gender Assessment

When Nigeria undertook its second and yet most comprehensive Gender Assessment of the National HIV and AIDS Response, it was a turning point for how the country approached the intersection of public health, gender, and human rights. Behind this landmark effort stood Mercy Nkechi Egemba, an Assistant Chief Programme Officer at the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) — a professional whose quiet diligence and coordination helped turn a national vision into a reality.

The Gender Assessment was designed to examine how social, economic, and structural inequalities affect the HIV response, particularly among women, girls, and vulnerable populations. At its core was a mission to ensure that Nigeria’s HIV strategies were not only effective, but equitable.

Mercy Egemba played a pivotal role from the very beginning. She was actively involved in the planning of the Assessment as well as the evaluation and selection of both National and International Consultants, ensuring that the selected team brought together a balance of technical expertise and local understanding. Once the process began, she took on an even greater task — serving as Coordinator of the National Secretariat that oversaw the entire exercise.

Colleagues describe Egemba as “the engine that kept the process running.” As the Secretariat Coordinator, she ensured seamless logistics as well as smooth communication among Government Agencies, Civil Society Organizations, International and National Partners and Other Stakeholders.
But her leadership extended beyond coordination. Egemba was also a member of the Core Team and a Data Collector, participating directly in fieldwork to capture the lived realities of communities affected by HIV and AIDS. Her involvement ensured that the findings reflected authentic, diverse voices from across Nigeria.

“Mercy wasn’t just behind a desk,” one team member noted. “She was in the field, engaging with women, girls, youths, and key populations — ensuring that data was more than numbers; it was people’s stories.”

When the fieldwork and analysis concluded, Egemba’s focus shifted to dissemination and utilization of the findings. She helped organize national and subnational forums where results were shared with policymakers, program managers, advocacy groups and other stakeholders.

The evidence generated from the Assessment directly informed major national frameworks, including the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (2023–2027) and other National documents and instruments at various levels of the country, embedding gender equality as a central pillar of Nigeria’s public health response.

Despite her leadership role, Egemba is quick to acknowledge that the achievement was a collective one. “The success of the Gender Assessment, she often says, was built on teamwork — a synergy of efforts from broad stakeholder participation – including Federal, State and Local Governments’ Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Development Partners, and Faith and Community-Based Organizations and even Religious and Traditional Rulers who shared a common goal: to make Nigeria’s HIV response fairer, stronger, and more inclusive”.

The Gender Assessment has since been hailed as a model of evidence-driven instrument for policymaking, offering actionable insights for integrating gender and human rights across public health programs across board.

Through her multiple roles — as Coordinator, Data Collector, Advocate, and Technical Expert — Mercy Nkechi Egemba has demonstrated that leadership in public health is not just about authority, but about accountability, empathy, and collaboration.
Her work continues to inspire a new generation of public health professionals committed to ensuring that every response — whether in HIV, gender equality, or social justice — keeps people, at its heart; leaving no person behind.