The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has reached a new milestone in strengthening its workforce, with the formal validation and launch of a new HR Transformation Strategy – a significant step in the agency's efforts to build a more capable, resilient workforce able to meet the demands of Nigeria's evolving public health landscape.  The strategy provides a two-year framework for workforce planning, talent management, performance improvement, leadership development, organisational culture, succession planning, and administrative excellence - and forms part of a wider scope of work to strengthen NCDC's human resource and administrative functions.

The strategy was developed and endorsed at a three-day workshop held from 10-12 February. UKHSA’s IHR Strengthening Project (IHR-SP) supported NCDC to bring together 34 cross-departmental HR professionals, directors and administrative staff under the theme "Repositioning the NCDC HR & Admin Workforce for Excellence, Agility, and Impact”. Engaging staff across departments and seniority levels was central to the workshop's design – ensuring a wide range of workforce perspectives and strengthening both its credibility and the likelihood of successful implementation. The result was a validated strategy and clear implementation roadmap, with cross-organisational commitment to delivering both.

A collaborative approach to strategy development

IHR-SP worked with NCDC to co-design the workshop - held under the theme "Repositioning the NCDC HR & Admin Workforce for Excellence, Agility, and Impact" - with the deliberate aim of giving participants genuine ownership of the strategy. IHR-SP supported NCDC in facilitating a structured process of review, challenge and refinement,  drawing directly on the priorities set out in the NCDC Strategy, Blueprint, and NAPHS 2.0 to shape both the agenda and the outcomes. By grounding the process in these frameworks, the resulting strategy reflects not only the immediate needs of the HR and Admin workforce, but also reinforces the systems essential for sustained organisational resilience across NCDC as a whole.

The workshop pursued five key objectives:

1. review and validate the draft HR Transformation Strategy
2. align the strategy with operational realities and workforce needs.
3. develop an implementation roadmap with clear roles and timelines.
4. identify risks and change management considerations.
5. secure stakeholder commitment to execution.

From strategy to roadmap

The workshop was structured in three progressive phases. The opening day established a shared understanding of the NCDC's current HR challenges, capability gaps, and the changes required to align workforce systems with the agency's strategic goals. The second day focused on refining the strategy's core pillars and guiding principles, translating them into concrete operational actions with defined accountability mechanisms. The final day centred on implementation planning, with participants jointly developing a phased roadmap that sets out clear roles, responsibilities and timelines, alongside structures for monitoring and evaluation.

The workshop concluded with formal endorsement of the HR Transformation Strategy by all participants, a structured implementation roadmap with clear timelines, a defined accountability framework with identified owners, integration of change management considerations and the establishment of a baseline assessment. Most notably, all participants made formal commitments through an end-of-workshop feedback survey to support implementation within their respective units - a collective commitment that provides a strong foundation for execution.

Beyond high satisfaction levels, participants reported improved understanding of how strengthened HR systems can enhance organisational performance, accountability, workforce coordination, and public health delivery. Qualitative feedback highlighted growing alignment across departments, increased confidence in the reform process, and strong support for sustained capacity-building and timely implementation of the strategy:

‘’Yes. The training was insightful and relevant to my role.’’

‘’My suggestion is to continuously train for capacity building.’’

Against this backdrop, the findings suggest that the workshop successfully established a shared vision for organisational change and strengthened the foundation for a more resilient and high-performing public health workforce.

A foundation for sustained impact

The workshop marked a major institutional advancement in modernising NCDC's HR and administrative function - directly advancing the priorities set out in the NCDC Blueprint 2024-2026, the NCDC Strategy 2023-2027, and NAPHS 2.0. Strong participation and collective consensus across the organisation signal clear readiness for transformation, and the validated strategy now provides a practical roadmap for building a more skilled, responsive, and joined-up workforce. This means faster decisions when they matter most, and an improved ability to catch health threats early, contain them quickly, and respond effectively in line with national priorities and the International Health Regulations (2005).

Paul Irabor, IHR-SP Workforce Development Technical Adviser for Nigeria said, "This workshop demonstrated the kind of institutional commitment and leadership that is essential to translating strategy into meaningful change. The IHR Strengthening Project is pleased to have supported NCDC in reaching this milestone and remains committed to the partnership as implementation gets underway."