Best Abstract Awards Recipients

Idowu Adekunle Emmanuel

Abstract Title: Utilizing community-driven strategies to break through barriers to HIV service uptake among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Idowu Adekunle Emmanuel is a public health professional with 9 year’s progressive experience in planning, designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating public health programs in sexual reproductive health and rights, HIV/AIDs, and TB. He has a bachelor’s degree in Pure and Applied Physics from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo state Nigeria and is currently undergoing a master’s degree program on data science at Rome Business School Italy.

He is currently working with Achieving Health Nigeria Initiative on the Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project. Under the USAID’s key population investment fund (KPIF), EpiC Nigeria is implementing activities with a focus on accelerating current key and priority population programs for female sex workers (FSW), men who have sex with men (MSM), persons who inject drugs (PWID), transgender persons, and prison inmates (PI) in Bayelsa and Niger states. Implementation commenced in December of 2019, and services provided are across the entire HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment cascade for key populations at the community and facility levels. The project maintains well-structured One-Stop-Shop (OSS) and Drop-In Centers (DICs) to offer these comprehensive services seamlessly.

He has worked extensively on PEPPER/USAID-funded projects with various international organizations (FHI360, Heartland Alliance International, Hygeia Foundation) where he provided technical assistance on data use and dissemination through institutional and capacity building, effective partnership, and stakeholder management.

Idowu has previously worked on the FHI360 SIDHAS project in different capacities between 2016-2018. He has broad experience in data analytics, data quality assurance, capacity building, and he is familiar with donor demands. He enjoyed reading and traveling.