Federal Government and state governments are adopting lessons from Ethiopia’s nutrition programme to extend interventions against malnutrition to all 774 local government areas, wards, communities and households across Nigeria.

The move, under the Nutrition 774 Initiative, is aimed at accelerating progress in tackling child malnutrition and stunting through coordinated interventions in healthcare, education, agriculture, water, sanitation and social protection.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, disclosed this at the Nigeria-Ethiopia Nutrition Leadership Exchange in Addis Ababa, where the Nigerian delegation is led by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Pate said Nigeria and Ethiopia would develop a roadmap from lessons drawn from the exchange to deepen implementation and accelerate nutrition gains.

“Nutrition is key to human capital development, and it requires sectors to work together in a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach,” he said.

According to him, Nigeria has recorded progress through coordinated national interventions and community-based programmes but must now strengthen implementation to achieve better results.

“We have to now go back and deepen the progress, accelerate,” Pate said, expressing optimism that sustained efforts over the next four to five years would deliver significant improvements, particularly for children.

Jigawa State Governor Umar Namadi said the success of the Nutrition 774 Initiative would depend on its ability to reach households, rather than remain at the level of national and state policies.

“The one thing that is very important with 774 is the fact that it will have to go down from the national level to each local government, each ward, each community and each household,” he said.

Namadi said Jigawa had complemented federal interventions with homegrown programmes, including the Masaki initiative and a “Tom Brown” nutrition programme through which about 600 women had been trained to produce nutritious food for children.

Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal said insecurity had worsened nutrition challenges in his state, which traditionally produced enough food to feed its population.

“In the past, when you spoke about nutrition, we didn’t even have anything like that in the state because we produced enough to feed our people. However, because of those challenges now, it has become difficult,” he said.

Lawal said the state would continue to explore solutions while aligning with Federal Government programmes and adapting interventions to local circumstances.

“Should we be defined by the insecurity? The question is no. What else can we do?” he asked.

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke said children under five and pregnant women must receive particular attention in efforts to improve nutrition outcomes.

He acknowledged that Nigeria had recorded some progress but said there was room for improvement, adding that the exchange would enable Nigerian officials to learn from Ethiopia’s experience.

Abia State Governor Alex Otti also advocated learning from countries that had made progress in tackling malnutrition, rather than attempting to develop solutions from scratch.

“There’s nothing wrong with saying that we have not done as well. And there’s also nothing wrong in learning from those who have done it, so that you don’t go reinventing the wheel,” he said.

Otti stressed that nutrition was not limited to food security, noting that healthcare, education, agriculture, climate change and poverty reduction were interconnected and required coordinated action.

He cited Abia’s recruitment of 9,469 teachers, development of 20 smart schools and rehabilitation of more than 200 primary and secondary schools, as well as the state’s commitment of about 20 per cent of its annual budget to education.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, said interventions must begin during pregnancy and continue through the critical early years of a child’s development.

“If we miss that period, the 2,000 days, we’ve set those children up for failure in life,” he said.

Alausa said the Nutrition 774 agenda was designed to move interventions from the Federal Government through state and local governments to communities.

Similarly, the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, said access to safe water and sanitation, alongside irrigation and agricultural production, was critical to improving nutrition outcomes.

He said healthy living was essential for human productivity, adding that reliable water supply was necessary for drinking, sanitation and food production.

The Nigeria-Ethiopia exchange is expected to inform a roadmap for stronger coordination across government institutions and more effective delivery of nutrition interventions at the grassroots.

The initiative places local governments and communities at the centre of efforts to translate national nutrition policies into measurable improvements in the health and well-being of Nigerian children and families. (The Sun)

PHOTO • Nigeria, Ethiopia to develop roadmap to accelerate progress on malnutrition

• as Zamfara governor laments insecurity worsening nutrition challenges in food-producing states