The Civil Society-Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) has assured that the Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition Systems (PINNS) 2.0 project will contribute to attaining optimal nutrition in Nigeria.
The PINNS 2.0 is a three-year project designed to strengthen the Nigeria nutrition systems to be more result-driven, effective, serviceable, efficient and transparent for human capital development (RESET4HCD).
Nigeria’s HCD target by 2030 is to attain 20 million additional healthy (under-five-years-old children surviving and not stunted), educated (completing secondary school), and productive (youth entering the labour force) Nigerians.
According to USAID, seven percent of children under five are acutely malnourished or wasted and 37 percent of children under five are stunted in Nigeria.
Also, data from the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows an estimated 2 million children in Nigeria suffer from severe acute malnutrition and only two out of every ten children affected are currently reached with treatment.
In addition, data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) shows that over 1 million children in northeast Nigeria are expected to be acutely malnourished in 2021, including over 600,000 facing severe malnutrition.
According to the IPC study, over 123,000 pregnant or lactating women are also expected to suffer from acute malnutrition.
In a statement, CS-SUNN noted that the PINNS 2.0 project will improve maternal, infant and young child nutrition for reduced morbidity and mortality, reduce diet-related non-communicable diseases and improve school performance and learning capacity.
CS-SUNN acting Executive Secretary, Sunday Okoronkwo, called on the government to sustainably commit to improving nutrition and make available adequate domestic financing for effective delivery of nutrition services.
‘The outcome will be a well-nourished child who grows up to become a major contributor to growing the country’s gross domestic product and aligns to the HCD objectives’, Okoronkwo said.
The project will be implemented at the national level and five focal states of Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos.
In a goodwill message, Permanent Secretary Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Abiola Adetutu Liadi, noted that with the support of CS-SUNN, the state government has made significant progress in the area of improved budget lines for nutrition.
Liadi also pledged the ministry’s support to the implementation of the PINNS 2.0 project.
For his part, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Planning and Budget, Kano State, Auwalu Sanda, expressed optimism that more progress in the nutrition sector will be made with the PINNS 2.0 project.
‘Nutrition has been given priority attention by the state government since the coming of CS-SUNN’, Sanda said.
CS-SUNN said the PINNS 2.0 project will build on the gains of the PINNS 1.0.
Source: CS-SUNN
Photo source: USAID in Africa
