Nutrition Stakeholders Urges FG to Unlock Lifesaving Child Nutrition Fund

Some nutrition stakeholders have implored the Federal Government to commit to the Child Nutrition Fund (CNF) to ensure access to Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) for pregnant women in the country.

The stakeholders made this known in separate interviews with newsmen on the last day of the five days stakeholders strategic advocacy meeting on nutrition taking place in Keffi local government area of Nasarawa state on Saturday.

Mrs. Lilian Okafor, Communications Officer at CS-SUNN described the CNF as a proven solution to combat Nigeria’s malnutrition challenges.

She emphasized the CNF’s potency as a UNICEF-backed funding mechanism, matching state governments’ contributions to tackle malnutrition head-on.

“This critical fund ensures pregnant women access Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS), a proven solution to combat Nigeria’s staggering malnutrition rates,” she said.

Okafor who applauded states who have keyed into this initiative for response to malnutrition especially in pregnancy, urged the federal government to also key into the initiative to ensure access and availability of MMS in public health facilities across the country.

“This will enable the government to come up with some form of counterpart funding to fund the purchase, sale and distribution of MMS.

“So we encourage the Nigerian government to key into the CNF fund so that we can have the availability of MMS across the health facilities in Nigeria,” she added.

Also speaking, Hajiya Asamau Mohammed, State Nutrition Officer for Niger state said her state was one of the few states that have already keyed into the CNF initiative and already reaping benefits of the initiative, among which is improvement of wellbeing of pregnant women in the state.

She then appealed to the federal government to do the same especially to support states who are yet to subscribe to the initiative to help the states scale up level of procurement of nutrition commodities especially MMS for pregnant women.

“When the federal government is able to come in, the initiative will be a big success especially as the outcome will really reinforced what the states have as a plan. So it’s a good idea for the federal government to come in.

“It’s a good idea for federal government to come in to support states so that MMS get to the states, grassroots communities and get to the last end users who are the pregnant women,” she said.

Mrs Rashidat Popoola, State Nutrition Officer of Osun state said the state keying into the CNF will go a long way to promote nutrition programmes in Osun state and impact the people positively, especially young children and pregnant women.

She then appealed to the federal government to key into the CNF to access the funds, procure and make the MMS available in public health facilities so as to reduce health challenges during pregnancy and childbirth.

Mrs Orume Beatrice, Deputy Director, Nutrition Department, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare also described the CNF as an important funding mechanism that will provide funds for the federal government to procure essential nutrition commodities like MMS for pregnant women and unborn children.

She then appreciated the call of nutrition stakeholders on the need for federal government to key into the CNF and assured that the federal government will look into their request.

The five days meeting was organized by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in collaboration with CS-SUNN and other key nutrition partners with the focus on crafting a comprehensive national advocacy strategy to tackle the country’s nutrition challenges.

The meeting, which ran from August 20 to 24, sought to strengthen evidence-based nutrition advocacy, integrate key interventions like MMS and unify efforts towards addressing Nigeria’s triple burden of malnutrition—undernutrition, overnutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies.

Our reporter reports that federal government recently approved the transition from Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (IFAS) to MMS, a move expected to drastically improve maternal and child health outcomes across Nigeria.

Every woman is expected to take the MMS tablet once daily for 180 days during pregnancy.

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