In Nigeria, about 17 million children are undernourished (stunted and or wasted), the highest burden in Africa and the second highest in the world. The country disposes of numerous policies, donors and coalitions in the nutrition sector; however, stunting is reducing very slowly. To reverse the problem, UNICEF developed and signed with the Government of Nigeria (GoN), and in synergy with UN agencies and other development partners, a five-year Country Program of Cooperation 2018-2022 (CPD 2018-2022). Within the scope of this CPD, the nutrition program, in Child Survival and Development results area, is one of the five key program components and its goal is ensuring that “all children, adolescents and women in Nigeria realize their right to nutrition”. More specifically, the nutrition programme aimed to: (i) enhance Government institutional capacities to scale up quality nutrition services and interventions; (ii) improve access to nutrition services for children under 5 years, school-age children, adolescents, and women; (iii) improve knowledge and skills to adopt essential nutrition practices among parents and caregivers; as well as (iv) ensure timely and sustained access to quality preventive and rehabilitative nutrition services and support during humanitarian situations.
In line with the nutrition program’s objectives, UNICEF presently supports the Government of Nigeria to strengthen nationwide preventive vitamin A supplementation and deworming interventions. Community Management of Acute Malnutrition; Infant and Young Child Feeding; Micronutrient Powders; Maternal Nutrition; Adolescent Nutrition; Dietary Diversity; as well as integrated packages (e.g. cash transfers, livelihood, WASH and Child protection), are more focused on where the services are needed the most, contingent on funding availability and, or, political will, among other reasons. In doing so, UNICEF is providing support to the Government to emphasize prevention at the Center of its interventions
Year Published | |
Type | |
Joint | No |
Partner/s | N/A |
Consultant name | |
Agency Focal Point | Robert Ndamobissi |
Focal Point Email | rndamobissi@unicef.org |
Managed by Independent Evaluation Office | No |
Geographic Scope | Country |
Country/ies |