Beyond good intentions: what will it take to end malnutrition in Nigeria?
Words by Dr. Shola Dele-Olowu
West African Programme Manager, AMP Health
In Nigeria’s federal capital city, Abuja, many residents are familiar with the services provided by street cleaners, often undertaken by young women who clean Abuja’s busy highways and streets in serviced estates. One such lady is Mama Miracle, so named after her 16-month-old son, Miracle, who she carries on her back every morning while cleaning the streets in my neighbourhood. It is difficult to ignore the signs of malnutrition in baby Miracle.
Baby Miracle represents a silent struggle that plagues countless families. It is the fight against hunger and malnutrition often ignored amid the chaos of the everyday bustle. This situation is not peculiar to Mama Miracle’s family. Across Nigeria, millions of families grapple with food insecurity and malnutrition, with two fifths of children under five years of age suffering from chronic malnutrition. While poverty is the root cause of this crisis, it has been exacerbated by climate change, lack of access to quality healthcare and education, and poor infrastructure. Despite the complexity of the problem and the adversity families face, there are glimmers of hope.
Addressing food insecurity and improving nutrition
In recent years, the Nigerian government has launched various initiatives to address food security and improve nutrition. In health and agriculture, sector-specific plans have been developed to address malnutrition. For instance, the National Multi-sectoral Plan of Action for Food and Nutrition has set a goal to attain optimal nutritional status for all Nigerians, with a focus on the most vulnerable – especially women and children. The central strategies of the masterplan focus on ensuring food and nutrition security, enhancing health services, and safeguarding consumers with quality and safety measures. Additionally, it aims to tackle food insecurity, promote a favourable economic environment, raise awareness of malnutrition, and ensure efficient resource allocation for food and nutrition security at all levels.
Another example is the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project, which focuses on 12 states with high malnutrition rates, home to more than 41% of Nigeria’s almost 15 million stunted children. Funded by the World Bank, ANRiN aims to increase the utilisation of cost-effective nutrition services for pregnant and lactating women. It has garnered unprecedented multisectoral collaboration among the government’s finance, health, women affairs, education, agriculture, and rural development ministries, alongside non-government stakeholders, to help ensure the country addresses the scourge of malnutrition.
Despite these commendable efforts, Nigeria is not remotely out of the woods yet. How can Mama Miracle feel secure about improving her child’s nutrition? The World Food Programme estimates that more than 26 million people in Nigeria will face acute hunger in 2024’s lean season (the period between harvests, running from May to August each year) due to rising inflation, the impact of the climate crisis, and food insecurity.
The role of leadership and management in tackling malnutrition and food insecurity in Nigeria
As a mother who does everything to ensure my children get all the nutrients they need, I cannot help but be burdened by the many baby Miracles and their mothers living in uncertainty about the source of their next nutritious meal. Nigeria’s National Policy on Food and Nutrition has stated that “effective institutional coordination is required” to ensure its nutrition programme is successful, acknowledging deficiencies in understanding what needs to be done and effectively implementing nutrition programs within the healthcare system.
For Mama Miracle and baby Miracle, hope lies in the transformative power of leadership to ensure that strategic plans are fully and effectively implemented, and commitments are honoured. The government must act decisively and urgently to address the pressing issues of food insecurity and malnutrition faced by Mama Miracle and millions of other Nigerians.
Providing affordable nutrition services – especially those focused on maternal newborn and child health – should be a top priority to improve health care. It is also essential to intentionally increase public awareness of malnutrition and include nutrition education in school curricula. The Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning’s support is paramount given its coordinating role in driving multisectoral collaboration in the interest of nutrition and food security.
Initiatives focusing on leadership and management – like the partnership between the Nigerian government, AMP Health, and the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children, Adolescents – help ensure the effective delivery of quality healthcare to women and children while ensuring gains made through nutrition initiatives are sustained and maximised.
In a country with abundant natural resources, the irony of food insecurity is a bitter pill to swallow. Though the road ahead may be fraught with challenges, I am hopeful that with all the investments and efforts of the Government of Nigeria, a future where every child in Nigeria has enough food to eat and the opportunity to thrive is achievable. The time to act is now and the stakes cannot be higher. Addressing malnutrition in Nigeria requires more than just good intentions; it demands decisive action and visionary leadership.